Functional polymer films are key components in the display industry, and the theoretical prediction of the optical properties of stretched polymer films is important. In this study, we try to establish the theoretical calculation process without an empirical database to predict the refractive index, including wavelength dispersions and optical retardation of stretched polymer films using several commercial simulation tools. The polarizability tensor and molecular volume for periodic units of polymers are accurately simulated, resulting in the accurate prediction of the mean refractive index and its dispersion for raw polymer materials. The birefringence of stretched films is also calculated to predict reasonably accurate optical properties of stretched films. The simulation method is an effective way that requires a relatively short time and low cost to develop new types of polymer films.
We report continuously tunable and bandwidth variable optical notch and bandpass filters created by combining four left-and right-handed circular cholesteric liquid crystal cells without extra optical components. Filter performance was greatly improved by introducing an anti-reflection layer on the filter device. The filter comprised cholesteric liquid crystal wedge cells with continuous pitch gradient. The band wavelength position was spatially tuned from 470 nm to 1000 nm. The notch filters are polarization-independent in the spectral ranges. The band pass filters can be designed to be polarization-independent or polarization-dependent via cell alignment and the bandwidth can be reversibly controlled from the original bandwidth (60∼18 nm). These tunable filter strategies could make a paved road to wavelength tunable spectroscopic instruments applications in the VIS and near infrared response spectral range.
In this study, we achieved active fine laser tuning in a broad spectral range with dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal wedge-type cells through temperature control. The spatial pitch gradient of each position of the wedge cell at room temperature was almost maintained after developing a temperature gradient. To achieve the maximum tuning range, the chiral dopant concentration, thickness, thickness gradient, and temperature gradient on the wedge cell should be matched properly. In order to understand the laser tuning mechanism for temperature change, we studied the temperature dependence of optical properties of the photonic bandgap of cholesteric liquid crystals. In our cholesteric liquid crystal samples, when temperature was increased, photonic bandgaps were shifted toward blue, while the width of the photonic bandgap was decreased, regardless of whether the helicity was left-handed or right-handed. This is mainly due to the combination of decreased refractive indices, higher molecular anisotropy of chiral molecules, and increased chiral molecular solubility. We envisage that this kind of study will prove useful in the development of practical active tunable CLC laser devices.
The objective of this study was to develop continuously tunable optical notch filters by combining four left-and right-handed circular cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) cells without subsidiary optical components. By rotating each filter, the photonic band position could be continuously blue shifted over 100-nm spectral range. Using four notch filter sets with four different chiral dopant concentrations, spectral range from 440 to 870 nm could be covered. Since each CLC cell has only one chiral dopant concentration, it could be stable for a long time. Each filter is independent of polarization in the spectral range. Filter performance was highly enhanced by introducing an anti-reflection layer on the filter device. There was no light leakage inside the photonic band. Outside the band, transmittance was about 70%-100%. In addition, these filters had stable operation under extremely high laser intensity (∼124 W/cm 2 of CW 532-nm diode laser and ∼4.43 MW/cm 2 of Nd: YAG pulse laser operation for 2 h) without showing damage. Such filters also have functions as a mirror and a beam splitter. Depending on CLC materials, this simple and easy strategy could be used to prepare filters for applications in VIS and NIR spectral range devices.
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