Investigations of a wedge-shaped nematic liquid crystal cell using Mach-Zehnder interferometer

摘要

We report optical interferometric studies of a wedge-shaped nematic liquid crystal cell. Interference fringes were observed when a nematic liquid crystal cell was placed in one of the arms of Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In the case of homogenous gap cell, the fringe contrast remained unaffected on applying voltage. However, in the case of wedge-shaped cell, the fringe contrast was found to degrade under an applied electric (DC) field and it became poorer at higher voltages. At higher voltages the fringe contrast improved where complete switching occurred. The degradation in fringe contrast due to wedge-shaped cell structure might find applications for speckle reduction in future laser-based rear projection displays.