Optoelectronic polarizer by PDLC

We present a new device based on Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals (PDLC). Applying a transverse low frequency electric field, the scattering cross section increases or decreases depending on the polarization of the impinging light. Depending on the choice of the refractive index of the polymeric matrix, such a device can be operated as a polarizer, or as an inverse shutter. In the first case one polarization component of an unpolarized beam is transmitted, while the other is scattered. In the second case an impinging polarized beam is totally scattered when an external electric field is applied and becomes partially transmitted when the external held is switched off.