Improvement of voltage-dependent dynamics through an oblique electric field in vertically aligned liquid crystal director surrounded by patterned polymer walls

Voltage-dependent liquid crystal textures in a homeotropically aligned nematic liquid crystal (LC) device, where the chiral-doped liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy is locked by polymer walls with crossed polarizers, have been investigated. The device shows wide viewing angle characteristics with advantages that it is free from rubbing process and spacer. The time-resolved LC textures show that they are not stable enough during an instantaneous reorientation of LC when a voltage is applied. To improve dynamic characteristics, we propose advanced cell structure where the bend and twist deformation is controlled by polymer wall plus an oblique electric field through patterned electrode. Consequently, dynamic characteristics of the device are greatly improved.     

一维液晶光子晶体透射谱的研究

一维液晶光子晶体在光滤波器、低阈值激光器和光开关等领域有着很好的应用前景。研究了一维液晶光子晶体的透射谱,电压范围在0～10V内,光谱调谐范围约为50nm,透射峰半高宽为18nm,禁带宽度近400nm。进一步提出了非偏振光型液晶光子晶体,设计了相互垂直0°扭曲取向的双液晶层一维液晶光子晶体器件。双液晶层起到了对各向偏振光光程的补偿作用,使得禁带中的两个透射峰合并为一个透射峰,加强了光强度,增强了滤波性能。     

Features of electro-optical characteristics of composite liquid crystal media (a review)

Main patterns of structure formation of composite liquid crystal (LC) media and their classification according to the percentage content of liquid crystal and polymer are considered. Their properties are compared with the properties of homogeneous LC layers and the opportunities of their practical use in optical modulators are discussed. It is shown that, at small (10 wt %) monomer concentrations in the composite, its polymerization leads to formation of a thin-wall network which separates the liquid crystal into domains and provides an uniform orientation in the bulk. The polymer network increases the elasticity of the layer and decreases the relaxation time, but the devices usually work in polarized light and use the same principle as the devices filled with pure LC; i.e. the phase of the light or its polarization changes due to a change in the effective refraction index. However, the division of the LC volume into relatively autonomous domains also allows one to create a polarization-independent device based on the scattering effect. By increasing the relative content of the monomer, it is possible to ensure formation of a porous polymer matrix with inclusions of isolated from each other LC droplets. Such polymer-dispersed LC in its initial state either scatter the light of any polarization and becomes transparent state when an electric field is applied, or, with the use of special methods, the switch-off and switch-on states are swapped (“reverse mode” devices). The main advantages of the composite media are independence of polarization, mechanical strength, and small relaxation times, while the main disadvantages are increased power consumption, high polarization-independent optical losses, and significantly lower contrast. Possible ways to increase the contrast are described.     

Thermally switchable flexible liquid crystal devices in prepolymer-doped cholesteric liquid crystals

This work describes an approach for fabricating thermally switchable flexible liquid crystal devices in prepolymer-doped cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs). The roughness of the UV-cured polymer film eliminates the stability of planar CLCs, allowing the textures in the UV-cured regions to be changed from planar to focal conic. Impurities associated with doping with prepolymers cause the clearing temperature of LCs in the UV-cured regions to differ from that in the uncured regions as the prepolymers are polymerized. Therefore, the textures in these two regions can be switched by controlling the temperature. Thermally switchable flexible LC devices, such as optically addressed smart cards, light valves, and others, can be realized using this approach.     

Plasmonic all-optical bistable device based on nematic liquid crystal

Low-power all-optical bistable liquid crystal (LC) devices are reported in which surface plasmons propagate along a metallic grating. The threshold switching illumination was 1.4 mW/mm² in the device with the twisted-nematic LC cell. This is a lower value than for all-optical bistable devices reported previously. This low-power bistability device can be used in two-dimensional optical memories or spatial light modulators.     

Novel approach to study liquid crystal phase transitions using Legendre moments

A novel approach is proposed to investigate the phase transitions of cholesteric liquid crystals using the Legendre moments. The textures of cholesteric liquid crystals (cholesteryl butyrate, cholesteryl n-valerate, cholesteryl decanoate, and cholesteryl myristate) are captured as a function of temperature using high-resolution camera attached to the arthroscopic mode of polarizing optical microscope with hot stage. A recurrence formula is used to compute the Legendre moments of the liquid crystal textures based on the Legendre polynomial using MATLAB software. The abrupt change in the values of Legendre moments as a function of temperature gives the phase transitions of liquid crystals. The investigated transition temperatures of cholesteric liquid crystals are compared with other techniques.     

Computation of high-stability DC balancing scheme for ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon holograms using graphics processing units

Spatial light modulators based around liquid crystal on silicon have found use in a variety of telecommunications applications, including the optimization of multimode fibers, free-space communications, and wavelength selective switching. Ferroelectric liquid crystals are attractive in these areas due to their fast switching times and high phase stability, but the necessity for the liquid crystal to spend equal time in each of its two possible states is an issue of practical concern. Using the highly parallel nature of a graphics processing unit architecture, it is possible to calculate DC balancing schemes of exceptional quality and stability.     

光控光子晶体偏光片

提出了一种新颖的调节液晶光子晶体光子带隙的方法.光子晶体波导通过往二维三角形光子晶体的介质柱之间填充液晶得到，光诱导液晶取向以改变液晶的折射指数从而改变光子晶体的光子带隙.数值模拟结果表明：通过外界光场控制所填充的向列相液晶的方向可以对这种二维三角形介质柱光子晶体的禁带结构进行调节.与电场调制方法相比，该光控液晶取向技术具有响应速度快、结构简单的优点.这种可调光子晶体可用于制作新颖的光敏偏光片.     

Cochleate-Doped Liquid Crystal as Switchable Metamaterial Window Mediated by Molecular Orientation Modified Aggregation

A diversity of fascinating hollow and porous micro and nanoparticles are being developed for drug delivery purposes; however, their applications in other systems are barely touched. When filled by an active material, they form a tunable photonic metamaterial. Here, a small concentration of organic hollow cylinders called cochleates embedded into liquid crystals (LCs) is demonstrated to form a new switchable composite to control light scattering with voltage and temperature. The biocompatible cochleates, which are hollow, tube-like, and hydrophilic in nature, can trap the liquid crystal molecules thus altering the system behavior. A switching device as thin as 6 µm with 12 wt% cochleates concentration is shown to be adequate to reveal a switchable privacy window. Possible molecular arrangement of the liquid crystal within the cochleate particles is suggested, and unexpected increase of the scattering with temperature depending on the applied voltage is observed as a result of change in the cochleate aggregation depending on the LC molecule orientation.     

Theoretical study of reorientation and torque of liquid crystal molecules under influence of external electric field and experimentally generation of spatial optical soliton beam and getting a sharp switching in chiral nematic liquid crystal

Liquid crystals (LC) are anisotropic materials which experience a torque if an electric field is present. This field can be due to an external voltage or to the presence of a light beam. Reorientation due to light leads to non-linear behavior in the optical behavior. Due to this kind of nonlinearity therefore it is possible to generate optical spatial soliton beam in LC by bias voltage or without it and interestingly chiral nematic liquid crystals has a opportunity to generate spatial optical solitons without the need for a bias voltage. In this paper we also demonstrate that a sharp switching of the helix structure occurs when the spatial soliton is launched in the middle of two regions where soliton generation is favorable. Due to the optical nonlinearity, the helical structure becomes asymmetric and a sharp switching in one direction can be obtained. Moreover, in this paper, the torque and reorientation of the liquid crystal and the change in angular momentum of the light are discussed.     

Light scattering by some nematic liquid crystals due to phase transitions

New computer modelling of light scattering and its propagation through liquid crystal has been presented using T-matrix method in the structural phase transition regions. Numerical aspects of light scattering process, which are based on numerically solving Maxwell's equations, were calculated for some nematic liquid crystals. Firstly, we described in detail T-matrix method for computing light scattering from nematic liquid crystals and presented results of benchmark computations for the considered model. We reported results of extensive calculations for polydisperse, randomly oriented rod-like multilayered systems (nematic liquid crystals). Our results are associated with light scattering by ferroelectric and ferroelastic materials.     

Laser light scattering technique for non-invasive in situ simultaneous measurements on elastic constants and viscosity coefficients of nematic liquid crystals

Theelasticconstantsandtheviscositycoefficientsarethekeyparametersforthephysicalpropertiesofnematicliquidcrystals(LCs)[1,2],fortheyarecorrespondingtothethresholdvoltageandtherespondingtimeofliquidcrystaldisplaydevices[3,4].Sofarnotechniquethatcansimultaneouslymeasurethetwoparametersinsituhasbeenreported.TheelasticconstantsandviscositycoefficientsofnematicLCsatthepresentaremeasuredusingdifferentmethodsindependently.TheviscositycoefficientsisgenerallymeasuredwithOstwaldviscosimeter,andtheelasti…     

New nanoheterostructures based on astralenes: Spectral characteristics and some application aspects

Original compositions in the form of suspensions of astralenes with luminescing solubilizers in various solvents, including liquid crystals (LCs), are developed. Using an LC composition as an example, the possibility of extending the dynamic range of optical limiting due to the joint action of two-photon absorption in the LC matrix and stimulated scattering by carbon nanoparticles is demonstrated. The spectral and luminescent characteristics of such suspensions are determined. The role played by the photochemical factor in the photodynamics of optical limiting in carbon heteronanostructures is discussed.     

Magnetochiral anisotropy in Bragg scattering

We show experimentally that light scattering in cholesteric liquid crystals shows strongly resonant magnetochiral anisotropy near the Bragg resonance; the optical transmission of unpolarized light depends linearly on an external longitudinal magnetic field and on the handedness of the medium.     

聚合物网络稳定液晶的电光偏振片

制备了一种散射偏振片,它是由非晶态单体形成的聚合物网络、向列液晶和涂有聚酰亚胺的ＩＴＯ玻璃基板组成。聚酰亚胺被反向平行摩擦,液晶分子则沿摩擦方向取向,并被单体形成的网络所稳定。根据聚合物网络液晶的电光特性可知。入射偏振光束被散射或透射相应地取决于其偏振方向平行还是生趣于基板的摩擦方向。平行时,光的散射强度通过电场可被强烈地调节;垂直时,光的透过率很高,几乎不依赖施加的电场。这种偏振器件具有低的驱动     

基于不同液晶填充光子晶体光纤传输特性的研究

将5种不同折射率的液晶分别填入实芯光子晶体光纤的空气孔中, 通过改变外场条件, 研究其输出光谱的变化规律, 并进行了理论模拟分析. 结果表明: 填充液晶后, 输出光谱由全通变为多个波峰的带隙式; 同时, 液晶的折射率差值越大, 其波峰位置越向长波长方向移动, 且相对光强的对比度可以达到16 dB; 温度由20 ℃上升到85 ℃时, 波峰向短波长方向移动, 最大调控范围可达41 nm; 调节电压从0-250 V, 输出光谱的相对光强变小, 但波峰具有较好的稳定性; 在室温下, 波峰不随入射光偏振态的变化而变化. 该液晶光子晶体光纤可应用于温控可调谐滤波器或电控衰减器.     

Tuning the flow of light in semiconductor-based photonic crystals by magnetic fields

Tuning the flow of light by external fields is a challenging task for scientific studies and optical applications, but it is important in many applications such as switches, modulators, and slow wave structures. Here, new results are presented which demonstrate that this effectively can be achieved by external magnetic fields in one-dimensional photonic crystals made from semiconducting material. The advantage of using semiconducting material is the magnetic-field dependent dielectric function of the free charge carriers particularly where the magnetic field causes large and strongly varying contributions – near the plasma frequency and the cyclotron resonance frequency. The results of simulations on the basis of a multiple scattering method at infrared and microwave frequencies and of experiments on Indium Antimonide in the latter frequency regime confirm the tunability up to the extreme case from full transparency to opaqueness and vice versa.     

Nonlinear optical properties of composites based on conductive metal-alkanoate liquid crystals

The dynamic holography in new composite materials based on a novel class of metal-alkanoate ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) is studied experimentally and theoretically. The composites are formed as a dielectric dye film covered by lyotropic metal-alkanoate ILC and ionic smectic glasses with doped dye molecules. The dynamic gratings are created by nanosecond pulses of double frequency Nd:YAP laser, the recording demonstrates fast erasure time of residual thermal gratings. The nonlinear optical properties are determined by the resonance nonlinearity in photosensitive centres of ILC. Note, that permanent relief gratings will be formed on a dielectric dye film only as well as in composite cells either with nematic LC or with polymers under action of pulsed laser radiation. Lyotropic ILC layer applied over the dye film provides the dynamic regime of grating recording in composite cells. We found a secondary thermal grating is much smaller, the conductive ILC matrix provides effective heat dissipation and erasure of this thermal grating. A theory of Raman-Nath self-diffraction holography on thin films followed from the wave equation and the nonlinear mechanism of absorption saturation is developed to explain experimental results.     

Viscoelastic modes in chiral liquid crystals

Viscoelastic properties of liquid crystals are very important for applications like display technology. However, there are not many direct techniques to study them. In this review, we describe our studies on the viscoelastic modes of some chiral liquid crystals using dynamic light scattering. We discuss viscoelastic modes corresponding to the C director fluctuations in the chiral smectic C phase and the behaviour of the Goldstone-mode near the chiral smectic C-smectic A phase transition. In cholesteric liquid crystals, we consider the director fluctuations in a wavevector range comparable to the inverse pitch of the cholesteric. Here, the study of the scattered light in the vicinity of the Bragg reflection using a novel geometry will be presented.     

Electrically controllable multiple, active, computer-generated hologram

The multiple, active, computer-generated hologram (MACH) is a novel device combining the attributes of electrically controllable diffraction gratings and computer-generated holograms. The version discussed here consists of a surface relief transmitting structure immersed in a nematic liquid crystal and sandwiched between two, planar indium tin oxide electrodes. Under control of a single applied voltage, the device can selectively generate any one of a number of desired, uncorrelated optical wave fronts. The device principles are discussed and experimental results presented. There is a brief discussion of the relative merits of the MACH and electrically addressed spatial light modulators.