Controllable light diffraction in woodpile photonic crystals filled with liquid crystal

Year: 2015

Authors: Ho C.-H., Cheng Y.-C., Maigyte L., Zeng H., Trull J., Cojocaru C., Wiersma D., Staliunas K.

Autors Affiliation: European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), University of Florence, via Nello Carrara 1, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019, Italy; Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Colom 11, Terrassa, 08222, Spain; Institucio Catalana de Reserca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), passeig Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona, 08010, Spain

Abstract: An approach to switching between different patterns of light beams transmitted through the woodpile photonic crystals filled with liquid crystals is proposed. The phase transition between the nematic and isotropic liquid crystal states leads to an observable variation of the spatial pattern transmitted through the photonic structure. The transmission profiles in the nematic phase also show polarization sensibility due to refractive index dependence on the field polarization. The experimental results are consistent with a numerical calculation by Finite Difference Time Domain method. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Journal/Review: APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS

Volume: 106 (2)      Pages from: 021113-1  to: 021113-4

More Information: We acknowledge funding from Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia and European FEDER through project FIS2011-29734, from European Research Council through IIT SEED project Microswim, and from FP7/2007-2013 ERC Grant No. [291349] on photonic micro robotics. Chih-Hua Ho and Yu-Chieh Cheng are supported by the Europhotonics Erasmus Mundus Doctorate Program. We acknowledge T. Trifonov from NanoEngineering Research Center-UPC for his support with the SEM images.
KeyWords: Crystal structure; Finite difference time domain method; Liquid crystals; Liquids; Numerical methods; Photonic crystals; Polarization; Refractive index, Crystal state; Field polarization; Isotropic liquid; Light diffraction; Numerical calculation; Photonic structure; Spatial patterns; Transmission profiles; Time domain analysis
DOI: 10.1063/1.4905695

Citations: 20
data from “WEB OF SCIENCE” (of Thomson Reuters) are update at: 2024-03-24
References taken from IsiWeb of Knowledge: (subscribers only)
Connecting to view paper tab on IsiWeb: Click here
Connecting to view citations from IsiWeb: Click here