Controlling light polarization using acrylate-based liquid crystal elastomers

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) are inexpensive, ultrathin, lightweight, soft-elastic, and field-programmable materials enabling the efficient manipulation of light's polarization. In this work, we present procedures for fabricating low-cost, thin-film dielectric quarter-wave and half-wave plates for visible light, based on LCEs. These wave plates exhibit good performance over a wide range of angles between the incident linear polarization and the optical axis of the elastomer. We systematically investigate several key properties of these elastomer films, including the dependence of optical retardation on film rotation, mesogenic content, and the wavelength of the incident light.