Conclusions
An overview of the basic properties of liquid crystals has been presented as an introduction to the subject of design and fabrication processes of optoelectronic LC devices.
Even besides the main application area of LC’s, namely displays, there has been a large and fruitful R&D activity aimed at the development of novel or advanced devices exploiting the peculiar properties of these materials. A number of sensors and optical modulators or switches have been demonstrated, that exhibit interesting characteristics.
Integration of liquid crystals in guided-wave structures leads to compact, efficient and reliable devices: further efforts, however, are necessary in order to optimize these microsystems, making them more performing and more rugged at the same time. An approach which seems promising to achieve higher performance is that of employing ferroelectric liquid crystals, which can exhibit much shorter response times than other LC’s. As to the ways of increasing ruggedness and compactness of LC devices, a viable route appears to be that of exploiting the characteristics of the polymer-dispersed LC’s: these composite materials, besides alleviating the alignment problems, lend themselves to an easy and convenient use in guided-wave structures. Their optical properties, however, still have to be deeply investigated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
P.G. de Gennes, The Physics of Liquid Crystals, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1974).
S. Chandrasekhar, Liquid Crystal, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2nd Ed. (1992).
T.W. Stinson and J.D. Lister, Pretransitional phenomena in the isotropic phase of a nematic liquid crystal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 25: 503 (1970).
B. Jéròme, Surface effects and anchoring in liquid crystals, Rep. Prog. Phys. 54: 391 (1991).
I.C. Khoo, and S.T. Wu, Optics and Nonlinear Optics of Liquid Crystal, Series in Nonlinear Optics, World Scientific, Singapore, (1993).
S.T. Wu, A semi-empirical model for liquid crystal refractive index dispersion, J. Appl. Phys. 69: 2080 (1991).
N.A. Clark and S.T. Lagerwall, Submicrosecond bistable electro-optic switching in liquid crystals, Appl. Phys. Lett. 36: 899 (1980).
G. Andersson, I. Dahl, P. Keller, W. Kucynski, S.T. Lagerwll, K. Skarp and B. Stebler, Submicrosecond electro-optic switching in the liquid crystal smectic A phase: the soft-mode ferroelectric effect, Appl. Phys Lett. 51: 640 (1987).
E. Santamato and Y.R Shen, Liquid crystals for nonlinear optical studies, in: A Guide to Liquid Crystal Research, P. J. Collings and J. S. Patel as., Oxford Univ. Press (1996).
L. Marrucci and Y.R Shen, Nonlinear optics of liquid crystals, in: The Optics of Thermotropic Liquid Crystals, edited by R. Sambles e S. Elston, Taylor & Francis, London (1997).
I.C. Khoo, Nonlinear optics of liquid crystals, Progress in Optics XXVI: 107 (1988).
F. Simoni, Nonlinear optical phenomena in nematics, in Physics of Lliquid Crystals, Gordon & Breach, N.Y., (1989).
I.C. Khoo, and Y.R. Shen, Liquid crystals: nonlinear optical properties and processes, Opt. Eng., 24: 579 (1985).
I.C. Khoo and F. Simoni, Physics of Liquid Crystalline Materials, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers (1988).
J.W. Doane, N.A. Vaz, B.G. Wu and S. Zumer, Field controlled light scattering from nematic microdroplets, Appl. Phys. Lett. 48: 269 (1986).
S. Zumer, Light scattering from nematic droplets: anomalous-diffraction approach, Phys. Rev. A 37: 4006 (1988).
J. Beard, Liquid crystals take the temperature in tests, New Scientist (ISSN:0262479) 139: 20 (1993).
Liquid-crystal devices sense temperature, Laser Focus (ISSN:0740-2511) 23: 48 (1987).
A T Augousti, K.T.V. Grattan and A.W. Palmer, A liquid crystal fibre-optic temperature switch, J. Phys.E Sci. Instrum. 21: 817 (1988).
A.T. Augousti and J. Mm, Temperature sensing using a hybrid optoelectronic multivibrating systm under full computer control, Meas. Sci.& Technol 5: 736 (1994).
D.S. Parmar, A novel technique for response function determination of shear sensitive cholesteric liquid crystals for boundary layer investigation, Rev. Sci. Insuum. 62 1596 (1991).
D.S. Parmar, A Novel boundary layer sensor utilizing domain switching in ferroelectric liquid crystals, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 62: 474 (1991).
D.S. Parmar and J.J. Singh, Partially exposed polymer dispersed liquid crystals for boundary layer investigatims, Appl. Phys. Lett. 61: 2039 (1992).
D.S. Parmar and H.K. Holmes, Pressure dependence of the electro-optic response function in partially exposed polymer dispersed ferroelectric liquid cystals, Appl. Phys. Lett. 63: 21 (1993).
S. Lacroix, R. Bourbonnais, F. Gonthier and J. Bures, Tapered monomeode optical fibres:understanding large mansfer, Appl. Opt. 25: 4421 (1986).
S. Lacroix, RJ. Black, C. Veilleuxand J. Lapierre, Taperedsingle-modefibes:external refactive index dependence, Appl. Opt 25: 2468 (1986).
C. Veilleux, R.J. Black and J. Lapierre. Nematic liquid crystal clad tapered optical fiber with temperature sensing properties, J. Appl. Phys. 67: 6648 (1990).
J.F. Henninot, D. Louvergneaux, N. Tabyrian and M. Warenghem, Controlled leakage of a tapered optical fiber with liquid crystal cladding, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 282: 297 (1996).
B. Picart, L. Dugoujon, O. Petit, C. Destrade, C. Leon, KT. Nguyen and J.P. Marcerou, Roc. SPIE 1080: 131 (1989).
J.F. Henninot and M. Warenghem, Leakography visualization of lasses in fibers and fiber optics systems using liquid crystals, to be published in Mol. Cryst. Liq Cryst..
P.K. Tien, RJ. Martin, R Wolfe, RC. LeCrew, and S.L. Blank, Switching and modulation of light in magneto-optical waveguides, Appl. Phys. Lett. 21: 394 (1972).
K. Miyano and Y.R Shen, Domain pattern excited by surface acoustic waves in a nematic film, Appl. Phys. Lett. 28: 472 (1976).
K.M. Johnson, D.J. McKnight and I. Underwood, Smart spatiallight modulator using liquid crystals on silicon, IEEE J. Quantum El. 29: 699 (1993).
T.G. Giallorenzi and J.P. Sheridan, Light scattering from nematic liquid crystal waveguide, J. Appl. Phys. 46: 1271 (1975).
M. Green and S.J. Madden, Low loss nematic liquid crystal cored fiber waveguides, Appl. Opt. 28: 5202 (1989).
T.P. Sosnowski, Polarization mode filters for integrated optics, Optics Commun. 4: 408, (1972).
D.J. Chanin, Optical waveguide modulation using nematic liquid crystal, Appl. Phys. Lett. 21: 365 (1973).
J.P. Sheridan, J.M. Schnur, and T.G. Giallorenzi, Electro-optic switching in low-loss liquid crystal waveguides, Appl. Phys. Lett. 22: 560 (1973).
Y. Okamura, K. Kitatani and S. Yamamoto, Electro-optic leaky anisotropic waveguides using nematic liquid crystal overlayers, J. Lightw. Techn. LT-2 292 (1984).
Y. Okamura, K. Kitataniand S. Yamamoto, Low-voltage driving in nematic liquid crystal overlayers waveguide, J. Lightw. Techn. LT-4: 360 (1986).
B.X. Chen, X. Tong Li, Y. Limura and S. Kobayashi, High-contrat channel waveguide switch with two nematic sections of a nematic liquid crystal covering, Appl. Opt. 32: 6018 (1993).
T. G. Giallorenzi, J. A. Weiss and J. P. Sheridan, Light Scattering from smectic liquid-cystal waveguides, J. Appl. Phys. 47: 1820 (1976).
S.K. Lo, L.M. Galarneau, D.J. Rogers and S. RFlom, Smectic liquid crystal waveguide withcilindrical geometry, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 201: 137 (1991).
N.A. Clark and M.A. Handshy, Surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal electro-optic waveguide switch, Appl. Phys. Lett. 57: 1852 (1990).
M. Ozaki, Y. Sadohara, T. Hataiand K. Yoshino, Fast optical switching in polymer waveguide using ferroelectric liquid crystal, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys 29: L843 (1990).
D.B. Walker, E. N. Glytsis and T.K. Gaylord, Ferroelectric liquid crystal waveguide modulation based on a switchable uniaxial-uniaxial interface, Appl. Opt. 35: 3016 (1996).
G. Scalia, D.S. Hermann, G. Abbate, L. Komitov, P. Mormile, G.C. Righini, L. Sirleto, Integrated Electro-optical switch based on a ferroelectric liquid crystal waveguide, submitted to Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst.
G. Abbate, F. Castaldo, L. De Stefano, E. Santamato, P. Mormile, M.A. Forastiere, G.C. Righini, L. Sirleto, Mode coupling between glassy and liquid crystal planar waveguide, Proc. SPIE 2954: 180 (1996).
G.C. Righini and S. Pelli, Sol-gel glasses waveguides. J. Sol-Gel Techn. 8: 991 (97).
L. Sirleto, M. Forastiere, G.C. Righini, A. Verciani, G. Abbate, E. Santamato, P. Mormile, G. Pierattini, Integrated optical switches using liquid crystal cells, in “PHOTOMCS-96”, J.P. Raina and P.R Vaya Eds. (Tata McGraw Hill), 1: 629, (1996).
G. Abbte, P. Mormile, L. Petti, G.C. Righini, L. Sirleto, Integrated electro-optical switch based on nematic liquid crystal, Proc. SPIE 3278: 84 (1998).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sirleto, L., Abbate, G., Righini, G.C., Santamato, E. (2002). Optical Sensors and Microsystems Using Liquid Crystals. In: Martellucci, S., Chester, A.N., Mignani, A.G. (eds) Optical Sensors and Microsystems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47099-3_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47099-3_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-46380-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-306-47099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive