Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Mixture Integrated Into Optical Waveguides

Author

Hu, Xuesong ; Hadeler, Oliver ; Coles, Harry J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng., Univ. of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Volume

30

Issue

7

fYear

2012

fDate

4/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

938

Lastpage

943

Abstract

We report an on-chip integrated ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) waveguide structure suitable for telecommunication applications. Single gaps with different widths of 5, 10, and 20 μ m inside individual silica waveguides were filled with an FLC mixture. The waveguide devices operate as a binary switch or an attenuator in a temperature range from 30 ^° C to 60 ^° C. The FLC mixture exhibited a good alignment quality in these gaps without alignment layers. A good extinction ratio of up to 33.9 dB and a low insertion loss of <; 4.3 dB at λ = 1550 nm were observed. Switching times of <; 100 μs were obtained for the low electric fields applied in this experiment.

Keywords

extinction coefficients; ferroelectric liquid crystals; integrated optics; liquid crystal devices; optical losses; optical switches; optical waveguides; silicon compounds; SiO₂; alignment quality; binary switch; extinction ratio; insertion loss; integrated optical waveguides; on-chip integrated ferroelectric liquid crystal waveguide; optical attenuator; silica waveguides; size 10 mum; size 20 mum; size 5 mum; switching times; telecommunication applications; temperature 30 degC to 60 degC; wavelength 1550 nm; Electric fields; Extinction ratio; Liquid crystals; Optical switches; Optical waveguides; Waveguide discontinuities; Ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC); integrated optics; optical switch; telecommunication; variable optical attenuator;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2012.2184738

Filename

6133319