Patent ID: 8860896

Claim:
A phase modulator for the modulation of the phase of circular polarised light which interacts with the phase modulator, comprising a first and a second substrate, an electrode arrangement and a liquid crystal layer with liquid crystal molecules, where the electrode arrangement comprises parallel arranged and independently controllable individual electrodes on one of the substrates only, where the first substrate is disposed adjacent to the second substrate, where the liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first and second substrates, where the first substrate has a first surface, and the second substrate has a second surface, where the first surface is made such to align the liquid crystal molecules which are situated next to the first surface in an orientation which is substantially parallel to the first surface, where the second surface is made such to align the liquid crystal molecules which are situated next to the second surface in an orientation which is substantially perpendicular to the second surface, where the electrode arrangement is controlled such that an in-plane component of the liquid crystal molecule orientation has a settable angular range of about 180 degrees or between −90 degrees and +90 degrees related to a specifiable central orientation between each of neighboring individual electrodes independently.