Fabrication and characterization of a micro tunable cat's eye retro-reflector

In this paper, we report on a micro tunable cat's eye retro-reflector. The tunability is obtained through the use of a smart film, a polymer dispersed liquid crystal device (PDLC). The cat's eye device consists of three subassemblies, a front-side focusing unit, the smart film, and a back-side reflecting unit. The characterization of the device, considering possible fabrication inaccuracy such as misalignment, is presented. Such a device can be used in a free-space communication system, or more specifically, an optical identification system.