SBIR PhaseI: Photo-reconfigurable Alignment Surfaces for Liquid Crystals

SBIR 第一阶段：液晶光可重构对准表面

• 批准号: 0320413
• 负责人: Michael Wand
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Displaytech Incorporated
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-07-01 至 2004-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0320413&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; PhaseI; Photo; reconfigurable; Alignment

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)Phase I project aims to investigate the development of photo-reconfigureable surfaces that will enable control of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) alignment and switching properties in ways not previously possible. The central problem is that the FLC-surface interaction forces needed to produce good optical uniformity of the FLC (alignment) are different from the forces needed for good analog electro-optic performance. If successful, our solution to this problem has the potential to enable sought-after fast analog electro-optic modulation modes ( 100 us) sought for beam steering, adaptive and active optics, tunable optical filters, optical information processing, displays, and telecommunications. The Phase I objective is to develop prototypes of the proposed surface materials and to evaluate them by building liquid crystal test cells. The crucial test will be to determine whether or not the surfaces can be configured first to promote good FLC alignment during cell fabrication, and then be photo-reconfigured into a state providing optimal surface forces for analog electro-optic modulation.The analog electro-optic modulation that would be enabled by the proposed innovation is the foundation for a class of advanced optical devices. A leading example is laser beam steering and optical wave front correction that find application in free-space optical communications, in MxN all-optical switches for telecommunications, and in beam steering and beam shaping for laser radar in aviation. It would also be useful in megabit write heads for the emerging holographic data storage industry, in tunable filters used in optical telecommunications, in spatial light modulators for optical information processing, and in microdisplays for consumer electronics.

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在研究可光重新配置表面的开发，这种表面将能够以前所未有的方式控制铁电液晶(FLC)的对准和开关特性。中心问题是，产生良好的FLC光学均匀性(对准)所需的FLC-表面相互作用力与良好的模拟电光性能所需的作用力不同。如果成功，我们对这一问题的解决方案有可能实现追求的快速模拟电光调制模式(100 Us)，用于光束控制、自适应和有源光学、可调光滤光器、光学信息处理、显示器和电信。第一阶段的目标是开发所提议的表面材料的原型，并通过建立液晶测试单元来评估它们。关键的测试将是确定表面是否可以在单元制造过程中首先被配置以促进良好的FLC对准，然后被光重新配置为为模拟电光调制提供最佳表面力的状态。所提出的创新将使模拟电光调制成为一类先进的光学器件的基础。一个主要的例子是激光波束控制和光波前校正，它们被应用于自由空间光通信、电信的MXN全光开关以及航空激光雷达的波束控制和波束整形。它还将用于新兴全息数据存储行业的兆比特写头、用于光学电信的可调谐滤光器、用于光学信息处理的空间光调制器以及用于消费电子产品的微型显示器。