B. Wang, P.J. Bos
Fiber optical networks require a variety of active and passive devices to accomplish connectivity. Because liquid crystal materials possess several basic functions, such as (1) impose a phase shift on plane-polarized light; (2) change the ellipticity of the light; (3) rotate the plane of polarization of light etc, and these functions can be combined with other optical device such as polarizers, gratings, dielectric mirrors to produce interesting liquid crystal based devices.
After systematic study the physical properties of nematic liquid crystal materials in infrared wavelength at 1.55mm, we use 90 degree TN configuration to construct the wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) network device, the contrast ratio about 38dB was reached and the device was demonstrated in the practical . The following picture showed our experimental setup.
[Picture of the experimental setup here]
Now we are focus our attention to design and optimize the low cross talking, low insertion loss, free space switching liquid crystal devices which work on fiber optical telecommunication wavelength.
References:
· J.S. Patel, Liquid Crystals for Optical Communication Devices, Liquid Crystal Handbook, Chapter 12.