POLICRYPS structures as switchable optical phase modulators.
We report on the electrically controlled optical phase modulator behavior of light sculptured periodic structures made of polymer slices alternated to films of well aligned Liquid Crystals (POLICRYPS). Arbitrarily polarized light normally incident on the structure experiences a birefringence that depends on the anisotropy of the composite liquid crystalline material and on the geometrical cell parameters. The sample behaves as a retardation plate in good agreement with the Jones matrices formalism. Birefringence tuning is obtained by applying a suitable voltage, while a negligible birefringence variation is detected by increasing the incidence power. This makes POLICRYPS structures suitable as switchable phase retarders for high power laser beams.
LICRYL (Liquid Crystals Laboratory), National Institute for the Physics of Matter (INFM-CNR), Center of Excellence CEMIF.CAL, Department of Physics, University of Calabria, Italy. desio@fis.unical.it
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Veltri
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Umeton
D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018511:Systems Integration
D011108:Polymers