Electrically-controlled Faraday rotation and wavelength mismatch phenomena in a magnetophotonic structure containing nematic layers

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the effects of the director reorientation on the spectral properties of a one-dimensional magnetophotonic crystal constituted by a sequence of magnetic and nematic layers, which exhibits a magneto-optical defect as the central layer. Using the Eidner-Oldano treatment to solve the Berreman equation, we numerically determine how the Faraday rotation and transmission spectrum of the photonic systems are affected by a field-induced reorientation in the nematic layers. Our results reveal that the transmittance spectrum of the magnetophotonic system is strongly sensitive to the director profile when the applied voltage is raised above the Freedericksz threshold. The director reorientation leads to the suppression of the typical wavelength mismatch between the Faraday rotation and light localization phenomena in one-dimensional photonic structures based on materials with different types of birefringence. Considering the polarization configurations of the propagation eigenmodes for a birefringent medium, the main mechanism behind mismatch suppression is analyzed, emphasizing the effects associated with the field-induced nematic reorientation. Our results show that the electric control of wavelength mismatch in magnetophotonic systems may be used as an efficient mechanism to develop a new class of optical switches and logic gate devices.