Self-Activated Liquid Crystal Cells Using Photovoltaic Substrates (Postprint)

Abstract

We show that photovoltaic fields are capable of efficiently reorienting liquid crystals, leading to new concepts of optically addressable light modulators. Using an arrangement consisting of a liquid-crystal layer between LiNbO3:Fe photovoltaic substrates, we observed spatial filtering due to self-phase modulation in a planar oriented cell and nonlinear transmission between crossed polarizers in a twist-oriented cell. These processes do not require an external electric field. The substrates are arranged such that light propagates along the +c axis in each substrate, allowing a secondary process of power transfer to occur through contra directional photorefractive two-beam coupling.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA462932

Entities

People

  • Dean R. Evans
  • Gary Cook
  • Jennifer L. Carns
  • Mohammad A. Saleh
  • Nelson V. Tabiryan
  • Svetlana V. Serak

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Crystals
  • Detectors
  • Electric Fields
  • Government Procurement
  • Governments
  • Liquid Crystals
  • Materials
  • Military Research
  • Modulation
  • Phase Modulation
  • Polarizers
  • Radiation
  • Refractive Index
  • Substrates

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Semiconductor Device Technology