Abstract
Blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) are promising candidates for next generation display thanks to their fast response and quasi-isotropic optical properties. By taking these advantages, we propose to introduce the material into fiber-optic applications. As an example, a BPLC based variable optical attenuator (VOA) is demonstrated with a polarization independent design. The device shows normally-off feature when no field is applied. Response time down to submillisecond scale is achieved in switching between two arbitrary attenuation states. The attenuation range is also measured from 1480 to 1550 nm, which cover the whole telecomm S-band and part of the C-band. The overall performances reach the requirements for practical use; while still have room for further improvement. Through this example, the applicability of BPLC in fiber-optic devices is presented, which may impel the development of many other photonic applications from infrared to even microwave regions.
Highlights
Recent years have witnessed the tremendous development of blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs), a kind of special double-twisted chiral nematic LCs
We propose as an example a reflective type BPLC-based variable optical attenuator (VOA), one kind of useful device which has already been demonstrated through other LC modes, such as sheared polymer network LC [19], polymerstabilized nematic [20] and cholesteric LC [21]
The attenuation reduces as the voltage increases, resulting from the phase retardation caused by field-induced Kerr effect of BPLC
Summary
Recent years have witnessed the tremendous development of blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs), a kind of special double-twisted chiral nematic LCs. The unique molecular structure endows BPLC with characteristics of quasi-optical isotropy, fast response and so on. The employment of BPLC would be a great approach to overcome this problem Other advantages such as good dark state and no need for phase compensation could be expected. We propose as an example a reflective type BPLC-based variable optical attenuator (VOA), one kind of useful device which has already been demonstrated through other LC modes, such as sheared polymer network LC [19], polymerstabilized nematic [20] and cholesteric LC [21]. The BPLC VOA demonstrated here possesses the characteristics of fast response, no residual phase, high dynamic range and wide band application
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