Abstract
The photorefractive effect in ferroelectric liquid crystalline mixtures containing photoconductive chiral compounds was investigated. Ter-thiophene compounds with chiral structures were chosen as the photoconductive chiral compounds, and they were mixed with an achiral smectic C liquid crystal. The mixtures exhibit the ferroelectric chiral smectic C phase. The photorefractivity of the mixtures was investigated by two-beam coupling experiments. It was found that the ferroelectric liquid crystals containing the photoconductive chiral compound exhibit a large gain coefficient of over 1200 cm−1 and a fast response time of 1 ms. Real-time dynamic amplification of an optical image signal of over 30 fps using the photorefractive ferroelectric liquid crystal was demonstrated.
Highlights
Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) have attracted significant interest from both fundamental and practical perspectives [1, 2]
Real-time dynamic amplification of optical image signals was demonstrated in photorefractive FLC blends
The photorefractive effect of FLCs was significantly dominated by the properties of the FLCs
Summary
Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) have attracted significant interest from both fundamental and practical perspectives [1, 2]. When two laser beams interfere in a photorefractive material, a refractive index grating is formed. This phenomenon is applicable to devices related to diffraction optics, including 3D displays, optical amplification, optical tomography, novelty filters, and phaseconjugate wave generators [3]. The polymer material is typically 100 μm thick, so that a voltage of 1–5 kV is required to apply on the film to achieve photorefractivity, which is almost comparable to the breakdown voltage of the polymer film This electric field is necessary for increasing the charge generation efficiency. A sub-millisecond refractive index grating formation time and a large gain coefficient are obtained in photorefractive FLCs
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