Electro-optical properties of photo-aligned photonic ferroelectric liquid crystal fibres

Photoaligning and Photopatterning: New LC Technology

“…Photonic crystal fiber (PCF) is a polymer or glass fiber with an array of tiny air holes running along the length of the fiber. The waveguide properties of such fibers can be controlled by filling an additional material into the air holes [7,[16][17][18][19]. The refractive index of the LC can be easily tuned by modifying the electric field or temperature, therefore LCs are suitable for this purpose.…”

“…The refractive index of the LC can be easily tuned by modifying the electric field or temperature, therefore LCs are suitable for this purpose. The technique of light reconfigurable alignment of LC in glass micro-tubes and in PCF was developed ( Figure 4) [7,[16][17][18][19]. .…”

“…Moreover, LC filled thin porous films will be also . From left to right: Typical LC molecules alignment in micro-capillary: planar, splay (axial, escaped radial), transverse; Single-frame excerpt from video recording of micro-capillaries filled with LC, in which two stable alignments (planar and tilted at 45 • ) has been obtained simultaneously [7,19].…”

Photonic Liquid Crystal Fibers – 15 years of research activities at Warsaw University of Technology

“…One of the advantages of FLCs is their rapid electro-optical response, which is a very important factor in designing PLCF-based optical devices. Typical response times for commonly used nematic LCs are in a range of 10-100 ms [37][38], while for FLCs these values can drop below 100 µs [39]. Moreover, to provide undisturbed light propagation in PLCFs infiltrated with FLCs and fine-tuning conditions, additional aligning materials are needed.…”

Spectral Properties of Photo-Aligned Photonic Crystal Fibers Infiltrated with Gold Nanoparticle-Doped Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

“…The most significant factor of the prospective PLCF-based optical systems is their rapid electro-optical response. For PLCFs infiltrated with NLCs, the typical values of response times are in the range of 20-30 ms [15,16], while for PLCFs infiltrated with FLCs, values may reach below 100 µs [17]. Another parameter crucial for designing PLCF-based optical devices is undistorted light propagation and fine-tuning properties that can be guaranteed by the proper alignment of LC molecules inside PLCFs.…”