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Dynamic response of large tilt-angle flexoelectro-optic liquid crystal modulators.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Fells, Julian AJ 
Welch, Chris 
Yip, Wing C 
Elston, Steve J 
Booth, Martin J 

Abstract

We present here the first time-resolved tilt-angle and retardance measurements for large-tilt (>45°) flexoelectro-optic liquid crystal modulators. These devices have potential for next generation fast switching (>1 kHz), 0-2π analog phase spatial light modulators (SLMs), with applications in optical beamsteering, microscopy and micromachining. The chiral nematic device used consisted of a mixture of CBC7CB and the chiral dopant R5011 in a nominally 5 µm-thick cell, aligned in the uniform lying helix mode. As the device is dynamically switched over angles of ± 54°, retardance changes of up to 0.17λ are observed. Furthermore, the time-resolved measurements reveal an asymmetry in the tilt in the optic-axis depending on the polarity of the applied electric field. The change in the optic-axis exhibits a pattern dependence, whereby it is determined by both the pulse history and the applied field. This pattern dependence results in tilt-angle errors of up to 8.8°, which could manifest as phase errors as large as 35.2° in potential SLMs. These time domain measurements may allow correction of these deterministic errors, to realize practical devices.

Description

Keywords

0205 Optical Physics

Journal Title

Opt Express

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1094-4087
1094-4087

Volume Title

27

Publisher

The Optical Society
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M016218/1)