Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals light shutter driven by surface acoustic wave

Author

Liu, Yan Jun ; Ding, Xiaoyun ; Lin, Sz-Chin Steven ; Shi, Jinjie ; Huang, Tony Jun

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng. Sci. & Mech., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-9 June 2011

Firstpage

2554

Lastpage

2557

Abstract

We present the realization of an optical shutter based on polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) and surface acoustic wave (SAW). The SAW is used to induce acoustic streaming within the PDLC sample to re-orientate the LC molecules inside the LC droplets perpendicular to the substrate from radial alignment. This reversible reorientation will change the light transmission through the sample. Experimental results show that such acoustic based reorientation is the main factor for the optical shutter effect. The optimized switching-on and switching-off times are 14 s and 5 s respectively, under the applied acoustic power of 36dBm.

Keywords

acoustic streaming; acousto-optical devices; drops; light transmission; optical elements; polymer dispersed liquid crystals; surface acoustic waves; LC droplet; LC molecule; PDLC light shutter; SAW; acoustic streaming; light transmission; optical shutter; polymer-dispersed liquid crystals light shutter; surface acoustic wave; time 14 s; time 5 s; Optical films; Optical imaging; Optical switches; Polymers; Streaming media; Surface acoustic waves; acousto-optic; optical shutter; polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC); surface acoustic wave (SAW);

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0157-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969772

Filename

5969772