Fig. 1. Schematics of multi-directional optical edge detection. (a) Horizontal edge detection under positive electric field, under a positive electric field, FLC molecules rotate towards the left side of the cone; (b) vertical edge detection under negative electric field, under a negative electric field, FLC molecules rotate towards the right side of the cone

Fig. 2. Fabrication process and polarized optical micrographs of the tunable FLC waveplate. (a) Fabrication process of the tunable FLC waveplate; (b) schematic of the ferroelectric liquid crystal director under positive electric field and the corresponding polarized optical micrograph; (c) schematic of the ferroelectric liquid crystal director under negative electric field and the corresponding polarized optical micrograph, all scale bars are 100 μm

Fig. 3. Fabrication process and optical micrograph of the NLC q-plate (q = 1/2). (a) Fabrication process; (b) the schematic of the director distribution; (c) the optical axis distribution under crossed polarizers; (d) the simulated crossed-polarized optical micrograph; (e) the experimental crossed-polarized optical micrograph, the scale bar is 100 μm

Fig. 4. Experimental setup, simulation, and experimental results of multi-directional edge detection based on FLC. (a) Experimental setup, inset is USAF 1951 resolution test chart; (b) the simulation result of horizontal edge image at +5 V; (c) the simulation result of vertical edge image at -5 V; (d) the experimental result of horizontal edge image at +5 V; (e) the experimental result of vertical edge image at -5 V; (f) the corresponding intensity at the dashed line marked in Fig. 4(d); (g) the corresponding intensity at the dashed line marked in Fig. 4(e), all scales are 200 μm

Fig. 5. Fast response of switchable edge detection based on FLC