SBIR Phase I: A New Class of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals for High Performance Optical Phase Modulation

SBIR 第一阶段：用于高性能光相位调制的新型铁电液晶

• 批准号: 0320456
• 负责人: Michael Wand
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 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 2003-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0320456&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; New; Class; Ferroelectric

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will explore the development of a new class of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) materials and a novel FLC operating mode to produce fast, analog, electro-optical phase modulation. The innovation exploits two new developments in the science and technology of FLCs: bent-core FLCs and electrostatically controlled analog modulation of high polarization FLCs. The Phase I objectives are to formulate enhanced materials of the new-type FLCs and use them to test the feasibility of the proposed electro-optic modulation mode. Anticipated results include an assessment of the innovation's feasibility, an improved understanding of the physical, chemical, and optical properties of these new materials, and the identification of further FLC material and cell advances that need to be achieved in Phase II for subsequent commercialization. The new phase modulators will be much faster than existing modulators made with nematic LCs and will operate at lower drive voltage. They will also achieve a full 360 degrees range of pure analog phase modulation with no optic axis rotation, a goal that has been impossible to reach using conventional FLCs.Phase modulation is the foundation for electro-optical beam steering and optical wave front correction, which find application in free-space optical communications, in M x N all-optical switches for telecommunications, in beam steering and beam shaping for laser radar in aviation, and in active optics. The new FLCs will also enable higher performance megabit write-heads for the emerging holographic data storage industry, and will be useful for optical information processing. They also enable fast tunable filters useful for WDM optical telecommunications systems.

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将探索开发一种新型铁电液晶(FLC)材料和一种新的FLC工作模式，以产生快速、模拟、电光相位调制。这项创新利用了FLC科学技术的两个新发展：弯芯FLC和高极化FLC的静电控制模拟调制。第一阶段的目标是配制新型LFC的增强型材料，并用它们来测试所提出的电光调制模式的可行性。预期结果包括对创新可行性的评估，对这些新材料的物理、化学和光学性质的更好了解，以及确定在第二阶段需要实现后续商业化的进一步FLC材料和电池进展。新的相位调制器将比现有的由向列相液晶制成的调制器快得多，并将在较低的驱动电压下工作。它们还将实现全360度范围的纯模拟相位调制，不需要光轴旋转，这是使用传统FLC无法实现的目标。相位调制是电光光束操纵和光波前校正的基础，在自由空间光通信、电信M×N全光开关、航空激光雷达的光束操纵和光束整形以及有源光学中都有应用。新的FLC还将为新兴的全息数据存储行业实现更高性能的兆位写头，并将用于光学信息处理。它们还实现了可用于WDM光纤通信系统的快速可调滤光器。