Nonlinear Optics and Integrated Optical Switching with Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Waveguides

提出的研究将开发用于光开关，光束导向和非线性光学（NLO）应用的铁电液晶（FLC）波导元件。光开关和光束导向FLC元件将利用FLC的开关速度快、功耗低和电光效应大的优点。该开关尺寸小，可以密集封装，从而产生大型开关阵列，可以连续重新配置，而不会遇到妨碍其他方法的功耗或尺寸限制。使用低驱动电压，光束转向器将具有大偏转和大量可寻址角度。FLC NLO组分将利用近晶C*态的永久极性顺序来定向FLC分子的超极化性，从而产生具有热力学稳定2非线性磁化率的介质。2FLC介质可用于激光二极管近红外辐射的倍频。拟议的第一阶段研究将开发FLCL薄膜的波导技术。在第二阶段，FLC波导将被整合到光束转向器、光互连开关和二次谐波产生介质中。

The proposed research will develop ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) waveguide components for optical switching, beam steering, and non- linear optics (NLO) applications. The optical switching and beam steering FLC components will take advantage of the fast switching, the low power consumption and the large electro-optic effect of FLCs. The switches will be small in size and can be densely packed to yield large switch arrays which can be continuously reconfigured without encountering the limitations of power dissipation or size that hinder other approaches. The beam steerer will have large deflections and a large number of addressable angles using low drive voltages. The FLC NLO components will utilize the permanent polar order of the smectic C* state to orient the molecular hyperpolarizability of the FLC molecules, resulting in a medium with a thermodynamically stable 2 non-linear susceptibility. The 2FLC medium can be used to frequency double near infrared radiation from a laser diode. The proposed phase I research will develop waveguide technology for FLCL thin films. In phase II, the FLC wave guides will be incorporated into beam steerer, optical interconnection switches, and media for second harmonic generation.