Thin-Film Optical Components For Custom, Sustainable Fabrication Solutions

The breakthrough in optical technologies that makes it feasible to replace optical components of all shapes and sizes with thin planar films for many demanding applications, also makes a breakthrough in optics fabrication technologies due to green, low-cost, and fast processes required for the modulation of geometrical phase in liquid crystalline materials based on the technology.

These so-called geo-phase, or Fourth Generation, optical components and systems can be designed for custom functionality and spectral performance, and be fabricated by adapting materials and processes developed for liquid crystal displays and optical polarization holography.

The full process, utilizing only milligrams of material even for large apertures, typically lasts minutes, from design to component that is ready to be used. Thin optical components allow modular assembly into multifunctional systems such as planar lenses with focal length switchable between multiple values. By that, there is no fundamental limitation to the aperture size of lenses (or prisms, or beam shapers) or the number of focal length values (or deflection angles, beam shapes, etc.).

This presentation will review the basics of the technology and manufacturing tolerances focused on emerging applications such as switchable lenses for augmented reality glasses, non-mechanical beam steering for auto-navigation LiDARs, large aperture optics for directed energy, and the prospect of producing Hubble size optics at the cost of an LCD.

About the presenter
Nelson Tabiryan, Ph.D., is the CEO of Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Corporation (BEAM Co.) co-founded with Dr. Boris Zeldovich in 1996. The company pioneered and is leading the development of the Fourth Generation Optics technology having demonstrated the first large aperture and electrically switchable geometrical phase planar lenses and related breakthrough optics and photonics components and devices for augmented reality glasses, non-mechanical beam steering systems for auto-navigation, free-space optical communication, high energy laser beam control systems, and for other emerging applications.

Tabiryan earned a doctorate in physics and mathematics, is OSA Fellow, NIAC Fellow, recipient of the Frederiks Medal, and the American Chemical Society’s Cooperative Research Award (with T.J. Bunning and T.J. White). He is the chairman/co-chairman, program committee member, keynote, plenary and invited speaker in numerous conferences with over 300 published papers and 50 issued patents covering all key aspects of liquid crystal geometrical phase optics.