Liquid crystal dynamics in a photonic crystal cavity created by selective microfluidic infiltration

Abstract

Mahmoodian, S.; Monat, C.; Tomljenovic-Hanic, S.; Grillet, C.; Domachuk, P.; Mägi, E.C.; Eggleton, B.J.; van der Heijden, R.W. Published in: Optics Express DOI:10.1364/OE.18.027280Published: 01/01/2010 Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of Record (includes final page, issue and volume numbers) Please check the document version of this publication:• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website.• The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review.• The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA):Casas Bedoya, A., Mahmoodian, S., Monat, C., Tomljenovic-Hanic, S., Grillet, C., Domachuk, P., ... Heijden, van der, R. W. (2010). Liquid crystal dynamics in a photonic crystal cavity created by selective microfluidic infiltration. Optics Express, 18(26), 27280-27290. DOI: 10.1364/OE.18.027280 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Abstract: A microfluidic double heterostructure cavity is created in a silicon planar photonic crystal waveguide by selective infiltration of a liquid crystal. The spectral evolution of the cavity resonances probed by evanescent coupling reveals that the liquid crystal evaporates, even at room temperature, despite its relatively low vapor pressure of 5 × 10 3 Pa. We explore the infiltration and evaporation dynamics of the liquid crystal within the cavity using a Fabry-Perot model that accounts for the joint effects of liquid volume reduction and cavity length variation due to liquid evaporation. While discussing how the pattern of the infiltrated liquid can be optimized to restrict evaporation, we find that the experimental behavior is consistent with basic microfluidic relations considering the small volumes of liquids and large surface areas present in our structure. Heijden, "Birefringence-induced mode-dependent tuning of liquid crystal infiltrat...

Double-heterostructure cavities: From theory to design

“…Doubleheterostructure cavities have been realized in different ways [4,5,16,17,[19][20][21]35]. Here we investigate the two geometries shown schematically in Fig.…”

“…3(a)], the photosensitive cavity, the refractive index of the PC slab is uniformly increased, often through a photoinduced refractive index change [17,18]. The second is the fluid-infiltrated cavity where the refractive index of the holes is increased, as can be achieved by fluid infiltration [20,21,35].…”