Liquid crystal polarization converters using circular-buffed polystyrene film

Polystyrene is well known to align liquid crystal (LC) perpendicular to the rubbing direction. Based on this unique feature, we prepared two cells with special LC alignments using circular-buffed polystyrene as the alignment layer. For the cell with hybrid-radial LC alignment, it can convert a linear polarization light to axial polarization light; for the cell with twisted-radial LC alignment, it can change a linear polarization light into radial polarization light. The two LC polarization cell converters with polystyrene as their alignment layer have the advantages of easy fabrication, simple processing, and scalable size.