Electro-optical investigations of holographic-polymer-dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystals.
Uniform alignment of ferroelectric liquid-crystal domains encapsulated by a polymer binder was established through a holographic exposure process. The refractive index modulation in these thin films is modeled as a phase grating that can be electrically addressed to erase the optical diffractive properties. A phenomenological model is developed to take into account a distribution of domain sizes and an effective field that stabilizes the ferroelectric liquid-crystal domains. A diffraction model successfully predicts changes in normalized intensities for first-order diffraction with applied field. These gratings demonstrate microsecond-scale response and relaxation times for various grating pitch sizes between approximately 3 and approximately 12 microm.
Division of Engineering, Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA.
Scott J
SJ
Woltman
James N
JN
Eakin
Gregory P
GP
Crawford
Slobodan
S
Zumer