Customized Design of Aperiodic Liquid Crystal Grating for Generation of Multiple Optical Patterns

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

comments are in the attached file

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

We sincerely thank you for the time and patience to review the manuscript for us. Pls refer to the Word file for details. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a great manuscript trying to explore more potentials of the liquid crystal gratings. General liquid crystal grating based on the PB phase has pretty high diffractive efficiency, however, people previously always focused on the uniform grating design and application. In this manuscript, the author developed the optimization method of generating different optical patterns by the non uniform PB LC gratings, and use several cases to verify the developed optimization mechanism. The paper is well organized with plenty of the references and clear background introduction. The motivation of the research is strong, and the paragraphs organization is well done. Based on the reasons above, I suggested to publish this manuscript if the author could updates the Figure 3e, 4e, 4h, the LC director profile with larger and more readable pictures. 

Author Response

We sincerely thank you for the time and patience to review the manuscript for us. Pls refer to the Word file for the details.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This work aims to optimize the design of liquid crystal (LC) grating to generate several optical patterns, including needle beam, multi-focus, and hollow beam. The optical patterns of LC grating are simulated using the vectorial Rayleigh-Sommerfeld method to discrete the LC phase of 0 or π. The theoretical and numerical are presented clearly in this manuscript. However, optical pattern generation using the vectorial Rayleigh-Sommerfeld method is not novel. Moreover, several similar works have been published in [Optics Communications 429 (2018): 112-118], [Optics and Lasers in Engineering 70 (2015): 38-44], [Laser Physics Letters 10, no. 6 (2013): 065004]. Therefore, I would like to recommend the manuscript can be accepted after major revision. My comments are listed as follows:     

1.     What is the novelty of this work apart from the optimized LC grating via vectorial Rayleigh-Sommerfeld method to discrete LC phase of 0 or π? Could the author put a brief introduction about this?

2.     Figure 1 presents the generation of optical patterns, such as the optical needle, foci, and hollow beam. However, needle beam, multi-foci [Advanced Optical Materials 7, no. 21 (2019): 1900883], and the hollow beam [Acs Photonics 3, no. 11 (2016): 2022-2029] have been experimentally demonstrated in previous work using dielectric metasurfaces. So, what is the author’s reason for using the liquid crystal instead the pattern dielectric material to change the phase of 0 or π?

3.     How much is the minimum slit linewidth with a phase 0 or π in the simulated POM image of the LC grating? The author should present this in the results and discussions.

4.     How could the author verify the optical pattern generation simulation results without any experimental? Therefore, it is interesting to put the experimental of the different phase distribution of LC grating in the discussion.

5.     Consider that the simulated POM image of the LC grating is generated using SLM via a pattern generator. The SLM has a minimum pixel pitch of 3.74 mm. How did the author generate slits having a phase of 0 or π with a linewidth of less than 3.74 mm?

To provide the readers a more comprehensive understanding of the research background, I suggest supplementing some latest woks about liquid crystals, such as transparent liquid crystal displays [Photonics Research Vol. 10, Issue 2, pp. 407-414 (2022)]; smart glass [Photonics Research 9(11), 2288-2295 (2021)]; broadband high-efficiency polymerized liquid crystal metasurfaces [Photonics Research 10(6), 1380-1393 (2022)]; continuously tunable intensity modulators [Optics Express 28(19), 27676-27687 (2020)], and passively tunable terahertz filters [Coatings 11(4), 381 (2021)]. 

Author Response

We sincerely thank you for the time and patience to review the manuscript for us. Pls refer to the Word file for the details.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

This is the second time that I have reviewd the paper. The authors have responded to all my comments and made appropriate changes in the paper. I now find the paper appropriate for publication.

I would just like to poit out that there has been a misunderstanding in my requirement that the authors incorporate some numbered equations in apppropriate sentences. They have now put equations in the sentences, but in the same line as the text and not in a seperate line (and without a number). This looks very awkward. The authors have several numbered equations incorporated into sentences. My suggestion was to do the same with all the numbered equations which were not a part of any sentence in the first version of the manuscript.

Reviewer 3 Report

Thank you for your kindly replies. The replies satisfy me. I would like to recommend the publication of the revised manuscript in the journal.