Surface anchoring effect on guest–host ferroelectric liquid crystal response time – an electro-optical investigation

The effect is reported of surface anchoring on various electro-optical parameters of a pure ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) and five mixtures with different concentrations of dye. The Anthraquinone D5 dye was used as guest entity, whereas Felix 17-000 was used as host in this investigation. The presence of dye molecules in the FLC dramatically affects the electro-optical properties compared with those of the pure system. Electro-optical parameters such as spontaneous polarization and rotational viscosity not only change with the addition of dye but they are also strongly dependent on the concentration of dye in pure FLC. The effect of dye molecules on the anchoring energy of the pure FLC system was also investigated. Due to strong anchoring energy on FLC substrate, its effect on response time was also studied. An improvement in the contrast ratio after dye doping was observed. The value of spontaneous polarization increases due to addition of dye, suggesting that molecular alignment improves, which is very useful from the application point of view.     

Linear wavelength sweep of a semiconductor laser and its consequence for dispersion measurements and interference noise in optical fibers

The wavelength shift of a semiconductor laser during triangular pulse modulation has been investigated, using both a Michelson interferometer and direct spectral measurements. This property is used to establish a method for high-resolution dispersion measurements limited to 10 ps, and not affected by material dispersion or detector rise time. A theoretical investigation shows under what conditions the method is equivalent to the standard dispersion measurement setup. The technique is applied to measure polar mode dispersion in single-mode fibers. Examples of polarization noise caused by polarization anisotropy and the variation of source wavelength are presented.     

Linear wavelength sweep of a semiconductor laser and its consequence for dispersion measurements and interference noise in optical fibers

The wavelength shift of a semiconductor laser during triangular pulse modulation has been investigated, using both a Michelson interferometer and direct spectral measurements. This property is used to establish a method for high-resolution dispersion measurements limited to 10 ps, and not affected by material dispersion or detector rise time. A theoretical investigation shows under what conditions the method is equivalent to the standard dispersion measurement setup. The technique is applied to measure polar mode dispersion in single-mode fibers. Examples of polarization noise caused by polarization anisotropy and the variation of source wavelength are presented.     

Spectral-resolved backreflection measurement of polarization mode dispersion in optical fibers

An improved backreflection technique is proposed to perform the spectral-resolved measurement of polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in optical fibers. This technique is based on the PMD dynamical equation and realized by measuring the polarization state evolutions of the reflected signal in both frequency and time domains. Two experimental setups, employing the far-end Fresnel reflection, are constructed to verify this technique. The agreement between the results of the proposed backreflection technique and the conventional forward technique is observed.     

SWCNT doped ferroelectric liquid crystal: The electro-optical properties with enhanced dipolar contribution

Effect of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on electro-optical performance of a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) has been studied. Voltage dependent spontaneous polarization and response time measurement has been made for the pure and SWCNT doped FLC system. Dielectric measurement has also been performed to understand the existing interaction between SWCNTs and FLC molecules. The results have shown increase in the value of spontaneous polarization and relative permittivity with slight slower response for the doped system. The observed properties of doped system revealed that the SWCNTs can perform well with FLC at low applied electric field to enhance the performance of LC devices.     

Properties of polarization evolution in spun fibers

We study the properties of polarization evolution in sinusoidally spun fibers. It is found that, similar to linear birefringent fibers, the evolution of the state of polarization exhibits periodicity, which can be measured by distributed measurement, such as those made with a polarization optical time domain reflectometer. The spatial period is linked with the spin parameters and fiber beat length in a simple equation. In combination with a previous finding, it is shown that the spatial period is uniquely related to spun-fiber polarization mode dispersion. This suggests that distributed fiber polarization mode dispersion can be determined throughthe measurement of the spatial period obtained in a distributed measurement.     

Dielectric and electro-optic behavior of pure ferroelectric liquid crystal material and the isomeric mixtures

We report here the dielectric relaxation spectroscopy and electro-optical properties of a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) CB470 (R) and isomeric mixtures containing CB470 (R) and its optical isomer CB480 (S) in two different concentrations. We have studied with two isomeric mixtures: mixing CB470 (R) and CB480 (S) in the ratio 95:5 (w/w) and 90:10 (w/w). With increase of percentage of CB480 (S) in the mixture the spontaneous polarization (P_S) value has been decreased due to cancellation of a part of the dipolar contribution, since the direction of P_S of the two isomers are in opposite direction. The tilt angles of the pure FLC materials and the isomeric mixtures remain almost unchanged. The dielectric strength of Goldstone mode is almost proportional to the spontaneous polarization (P_S). An additional collective mode has been observed in the SmC¹ phase due to the formation of domain with large periodicity in pure FLC material and in one of the isomeric mixtures by unwinding the helical structures, which is known as domain mode. The existence of domain mode has been studied extensively with the variation of P_S in the isomeric mixtures. The result has been discussed.     

High-speed polarization mode dispersion compensation in a 43-Gb/s RZ-DQPSK transmission system over 1200 km of standard single-mode fibre

This paper reports that the designed optical polarization mode dispersion compensator shows a good performance under the real-time variation of differential group delay, state of polarization and principal state of polarization in a (40 × 43)-Gb/s dense-wavelength-multiplexing, 1200-km enhanced return-to-zero differential-quadrature-phase-shift-keying (RZ-DQPSK) system. The polarization mode dispersion tolerance of the system is improved by 26 ps using the optical polarization mode dispersion compensator. The short and long time stabilities are tested with the bit error ratio recorded.vspace1mm     

The effect of variable PSP angles in a PMD compensator

A polarization mode dispersion compensator (PMDC) composed of two polarization mode dispersion (PMD) elements and one polarization dependent loss (PDL) element is proposed. Simulation shows that, due to the variable angle between the two principal states of polarization (PSPs) of the compensator, the proposed compensator can improve the PMD compensation efficiency for systems with both PMD and PDL, especially when higher order PMD is compensated.     

Optical monitoring of PMD accumulation on a Pol-MUX phase-modulated signal using degree-of-polarization measurements

We experimentally demonstrate a chromatic dispersion insensitive monitoring technique for monitoring of polarization mode dispersion and time misalignment in a 80 Gbit/s polarization-multiplexed return-to-zero differential phase-shift-keying (Pol-MUX RZ-DPSK) signal using a polarimeter and degree-of polarization (DOP) measurements. This technique is modulation format independent (i.e., applicable to both the phase- and amplitude-modulated data) and capable of measuring the fast change of polarization effects caused by vibration or other fast disturbances in the fiber link. We show that the monitored DOP of this signal decreases by 10.8% with differential group delay of 0-12 ps and decreases by 20% with a maximum misalignment of 12.5 ps between two orthogonally polarized RZ-DPSK channels. These measurements are less sensitive to chromatic dispersion of 0-400 ps/nm.     

Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy of guest-host ferroelectric liquid crystals: influence of anthraquinone dye

The dielectric spectroscopy of a short pitch and high spontaneous polarization ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture and its guest-host derivatives with different wt/wt ratio of anthraquinone blue dichroic dye has been studied over a wide frequency range of 50 Hz-1 MHz. The increase in dye concentration results in the decrease of the permittivity of the material in the SmC* phase, however, an opposite effect is observed in the SmA phase. The influence of bias voltage on the dielectric parameters has also been investigated. A new relaxation mode has been observed with a relaxation frequency of ∼300 kHz and dielectric strength of ∼5 at room temperature.     

偏振度作为反馈信号进行偏振模色散补偿的研究

对40Gb／s光纤通信中归零码和非归零码光脉冲的偏振度随二阶偏振模色散的变化规律进行了数值模拟,结果表明由于二阶偏振模色散的影响,偏振度的变化趋势呈现出震荡性,二阶偏振模色散对归零码的偏振度要比非归零码的偏振度影响明显;同时搭建了偏振模色散补偿系统,对系统进行数值模拟和实验所得到的结果都表明,以偏振度作为反馈信号,采用粒子群优化算法作搜索算法能够有效地对归零码和非归零码系统的一阶及高阶偏振模色散进行自适应补偿。     

能够补偿二阶偏振模色散的三阶段偏振模色散补偿器

简要分析了偏振相关色散对光通信系统性能的影响,提出了一种三阶段高阶偏振模色散补偿方案,从理论上分析了它同时补偿偏振相关色散和偏振主态旋转的可能性,并提出了其可能存在的两种工作方式.通过数值模拟与两阶段补偿方案进行了性能比较,其偏振模色散容限比两阶段补偿提高约17%个比特周期 关键词： 光通信 光偏振 光纤色散     

Dielectric and electro-optical studies of a nickel-ferrite-nanoparticle- doped ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture

Effect of magnetic nanoparticles (nickel ferrite) doping on the dielectric and electro-optical properties of a ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture has been studied. In a doped ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture, dispersion of a small amount (0.25 wt.%) of nickel ferrite nanoparticles decreases the polarization and improves the response time compared to an undoped mixture. The significant changes in the polarization and response time are explained on the basis of dipole–dipole interaction and anchoring phenomena. Dielectric permittivity also increases with increasing the temperature of the SmC* phase and shows a reduction in dielectric loss in a doped sample. A Goldstone mode is clearly observed at ～200 and ～500 Hz in an undoped and a doped sample, respectively.     

A deeper analysis of the second order polarization mode dispersion in optical communications systems

This article presents a new approach to the combined analysis of the first and second-order polarization mode dispersion (SOPMD) and shows their importance in optical communication systems performance. How it affects the relation between second-order polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and the differential group delay (DGD) in a single mode fiber is discussed. The analysis is based on time or wavelength and temperature variations changing/impacting PMD and DGD measured values. We present long term statistical characteristics of second-order PMD over a PMD emulator, and investigate the correlation between SOPMD, depolarization (DEP) and polarization dependent chromatic dispersion (PCD). Some authors calculate these modes from measurements obtained from the first order polarization mode dispersion, assuming a positive correlation between these effects, but this not the real relationship between them. A new interpretation of SOPMD was used to analyze the problem of the spectral stability in terms of the temperature. Actual techniques for determination SOPMD, consequently DEP and PCD, use the variation in time and/or wavelength. In some studies the results obtained for SOPMD are correlated to first-order PMD (FOPMD). This paper shows, based on measurements, that the correlation between first and second order Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) in the case where the last one is a function of the temperature can assume positive or negative values.     

一种测量偏振模色散的新方法

提出利用检偏器和光谱仪同时测量单模光纤各个波长的输出偏振态，从而测量出偏振横色散群时延差，这种方法和传统方法相比，测量时间大为节省，降低了偏振模色散随时间变化而引起的测量误差，提高了测量精度。     

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.     

Novel liquid crystal multistage circular polarization switch for three-dimensional laser pico projectors

Crosstalk is one of the most important factors affecting the image quality of polarization switching three-dimensional (3D) projectors. The variation in the phase difference of a polarization switch owing to dispersion degrades crosstalk performance. We propose a novel multistage circular polarization switch comprising liquid crystal devices using a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) in-plane fast switch and a thick nematic liquid crystal (NLC) retarder. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept model of a 3D laser pico projector using a scanning MEMS head in combination with the polarization switch. We also evaluate the crosstalk and 3D performance of the projector.     

一种高精度偏振遥感探测方式的精度分析

检偏器的角度误差是影响偏振遥感探测精度的重要因素之一,是许多高精度定量化偏振遥感需要考虑的一个问题。在检偏器(0°,60°,120°)放置的测量系统中,当入射光偏振角接近于0°或180°时偏振测量易产生最大误差值,而偏振角接近30°,90°和150°时,偏振度的测量具有很高的精度;在检偏器(0°,45°,90°)放置方式中,偏振角接近45°的光束测量易具有最大误差值,而偏振角接近于0°,90°和135°时,角度误差对偏振度测量精度的影响很小。除了个别偏振角外,对高偏振度入射光束的偏振测量通常具有较大的偏振测量误差。因此,引进线偏振光的平均偏振度测量精度描述偏振测量装置的优劣,结果表明检偏器(0°,60°,120°)放置方式优于检偏器(0°,45°,90°)放置方式。     

Changes in material parameters for dye-doped ferroelectric liquid crystal

Addition of the dichroic anthraquinone dye molecules in pure ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) matrix results in many improvement in the various vital parameters of the pure FLC. However, addition of anthraquinone dye molecules in pure FLC matrix is not advantageous every time. There are certain constraints which are crucial for the application of these systems into many devices. In this article, we have discussed the concentration and temperature dependence of vital properties of dye-doped FLC. In this study there is improvement in contrast ratio by dye doping due to enhancement in plane switching for dye-doped FLC.