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Abstract
A waveguide consisting of a thin (< 1 μm) layer of nematic liquid crystal sandwiched between two parallel aligned gratings is described. Grating coupling to guided modes is demonstrated by monitoring the reflection and transmission from the cell as a function of incident angle. A reduced birefringence is seen compared to the bulk case which is explained in terms of disordered regions of liquid crystal close to the grating surfaces. The movement of guided modes under electrical bias is shown and time resolved experiments demonstrate high contrast switching with rise times as fast as 18 μs.