325-nm Laser System for Robust Liquid-Crystal Device Fabrication

液晶——一种兼具液体和晶体性质的材料——在本世纪的技术中被广泛应用，例如在所有电子显示器中。它们经常用于先进的研究实验室，特别是光学和光子学实验室。具有电光特性，可以用外电场控制光偏振和相位，使其成为光束整形的优秀候选者。在我的实验室里，我已经成功地设计和制造了液晶器件来定制光束。这些设备现在被我的本地和国际同事广泛应用于大量的研究学科，从显微镜、量子传感、量子通信到物理学的基础研究。在我的工厂（加拿大唯一的一个）目前的仪器，制造设备的使用寿命被限制在几个月，之后它们就无法使用，浪费宝贵的资源。这是由于当前用于光对准的激光器（制备这些器件的基本程序）波长不合适，导致液晶分子在样品衬底上的“固定”不完美。为了克服这些问题，我正在申请资金，以购买具有特定性能的激光源（325 nm波长和bbb100 mW功率），用于制造图案液晶器件。虽然目前的激光器工作在405nm，但众所周知，波长的差异对器件寿命有重大影响。该仪器的使用将允许制造具有多年耐用性的LC设备。如此重大的改进对于加快研究活动和继续促进本地和国际合作至关重要，并在我的实验室培训HQP，使渥太华大学和加拿大在定制液晶器件制造方面处于领先地位。

Liquid crystals -- a material with both liquid and crystalline properties -- are widely used in the current century's technologies, e.g. in all electronics displays. They are regularly used in advanced research laboratories, in particular, in optics and photonics laboratories. Having electro--optical features with the possibility to control the optical polarization and phase with an external electric field makes them an excellent candidate for optical beam shaping. In my laboratory, I have successfully designed and fabricated liquid- crystal devices to custom tailor optical beams. These devices are now widely used by my local and international colleagues in a plethora of research disciplines, ranging from microscopy, quantum sensing and quantum communication to fundamental research in physics. With the current instrumentation at my facility (the only one in Canada), the lifetime of the fabricated devices is limited to a few months, after which they are unusable, wasting valuable resources. This is due to the fact that the current laser for photoalignment (a fundamental procedure in the preparation of these devices) at an improper wavelength, which causes an imperfect "fixation" of the liquid crystal molecules on the sample substrate. To overcome these issues, I am requesting funding to purchase a laser source with specific properties (325 nm wavelength and >100 mW power) for the fabrication of patterned liquid-crystal devices. While the current laser operates at 405 nm, it is known that this difference in wavelength has a significant impact on the device lifetime. The access to this instrumentation will allow fabrication of LC devices with years of durability. Such a significant improvement is essential to speed up research activities and continue to foster both local and international collaborations, and training HQP in my laboratory, putting the University of Ottawa and Canada in a leading position for the fabrication of custom liquid- crystal devices.