| Name: | Phanindra DVS |
| Affiliation: | Indian Institute of Astrophysics |
| Conference ID: | ASI2025_396 |
| Title: | Fabrication and Characterization of Liquid Crystal Retarders |
| Authors: | D.V.S. Phanindra 1, Greeshma L.S 2, Della Vincent 1, Muhammed Raees 2, Nagaraju K 1, Gurumurthy Hegde 3, Sreekumar P 4, Manoj A.G. Namboothiry 2 |
| Authors Affiliation: | 1 D.V.S. Phanindra, Della Vincent, Nagaraju K (Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore-560034, India)
2 Greeshma L, Muhammed Raees, Manoj A.G. Namboothiry, (School of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram-695551, India)
3 Gurumurthy Hegde (Center for Advanced Research and Development, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore-560029, India)
4 Sreekumar P (Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal-576104, India) |
| Mode of Presentation: | Oral |
| Abstract Category: | Facilities, Technologies and Data science |
| Abstract: | Liquid Crystal (LC) molecules can alter the polarization state of incoming radiation by varying the voltage applied to the device. The specialty of these liquid crystal retarders can help replace conventional crystal retarders, enhancing the performance of polarimeters constructed with these devices. However, manufacturing LC retarders is complicated, and the commercially available ones are expensive. Here, we introduce a simple procedure to develop a prototype LC retarder. Commercially available E7 Nematic Liquid Crystal (NLC) is used here to demonstrate the prototype. Nylon suspension, which has good thermal stability with a melting point of 150°C, is used as the aligning layer, a cheaper alternative to the conventionally used polyimide layer. The size of the fabricated LC retarder is 1-inch square with an operational voltage range of 20V. In this presentation, we outline the fabrication procedure of the prototype LC Retarders and their characterization. The uniformity of the fabricated LC retarder is tested using an in-house developed Full-Stokes polarimeter, and these results will also be presented. |
