LC/polymer composite and its applications in photonics devices

Abstract

Traditionally LC/polymer composite, such as polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC), holographic PDLC (H-PDLC), and polymer stabilized liquid crystal (PSLC) etc. is primarily used as display devices. Recently, with electrical, optical and thermal tunability, easy fabrication and fast response time, they have attracted much attention in photonics devices (grating, diffractive optical elements, optical switches etc.) with potential applications in communications, imaging, and biology. The intrinsic tunable property of LC/polymer composite (by means of mechanic, electronic, magnetic, thermal stimulus) makes it an attractive material used in dynamic photonics devices. In this paper, we will first introduce the preparation of LC/polymer material for various objectives. Then two essential fabrication approaches i.e. multibeams interference lithography for periodic structures and programmable projection lithography for specific designed patterns are introduced respectively. At last, our recent results in applying LC/polymer composite in photonic devices, such as tunable 3D photonics crystals, 2D tunable lasing source, focusing elements and binary Airy beams generation etc. are reviewed.