Abstract
A dual-frequency liquid crystal polarization grating is fabricated by photoalignment and demonstrated as an optical switch. A high diffraction efficiency up to 95% is obtained for a single first order with circular incident polarization. Via merely alternating the frequency of applied electric field, the switch On and Off time reach 350 μs and 550 μs, respectively. This work supplies a new design for fast-response and high-efficiency optical switch with the merits of easy fabrication and low power consumption.
Highlights
Liquid crystals (LCs) are promising candidates for tunable and dynamic optical devices, among which LC switches have sparked significant interests [1]
A major challenge of dual-frequency LCs (DFLCs) devices is noticeable dielectric heating effect originating from the applied high frequency, which in turn causes the crossover frequency to drift [30, 31]
At the selected frequency, fast response is achieved with comparatively low thermodielctric effect
Summary
Liquid crystals (LCs) are promising candidates for tunable and dynamic optical devices, among which LC switches have sparked significant interests [1]. Besides optical communication and information displays, the LC optical switches have great potentials in photonic applications [5] as well Among these LC switches, grating type is widely used [6,7,8]. PB phase based polarization gratings have already been demonstrated in high-efficiency diffractive optical elements [17,18,19,20]. Through optimizing the cell parameters, the switching On/Off time reaches submillisecond scale via merely alternating the frequency of applied electric field. This optical switch still remains the characteristic of high efficiency of polarization gratings. It supplies a practical way towards high-performance optical switch with the merits of easy fabrication and low power consumption
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