Transflective spatial filter based on azo-dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal films

This work demonstrates the feasibility of exploiting the photoisomerization effect in azo-dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (DDCLC) films with a concomitant decline of the phase transition temperature from the cholesteric to an isotropic phase (TCh-I) as a spatial filter. The fabrication depends on the fact that the various intensities of the diffracted orders are responsible for the various degrees of transparency associated with the photoisomerized DDCLC film. High- and low-pass images in the Fourier optical signal process can be simultaneously observed via reflected and transmitted signals, respectively. A simulation is also performed, and the results are consistent closely with experimental data. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.