Reversible optical nonreciprocity in periodic structures with liquid crystals

Abstract

We demonstrate how to achieve reversible nonreciprocal optical response in a periodic photonic structure with a pair of defects, one of them being a nonlinear liquid crystal defect layer. The twin defect structure is symmetric at low intensity and becomes asymmetric above an intensity threshold that corresponds to the optical reordering of the liquid crystal. We show that nonreciprocal effects can be reversed by changing the wavelength as a consequence of the wavelength dependent light localization at the defect mode inside the structure.