Application of Cholesteryl Alkanoate Liquid Crystals for Light Polarization Control

Abstract

Chiral LC mixtures based on cholesterol esters with strong temperature dependence of the helical pitch were used for realization of the light-controlled adjustment of the selective reflection (SR) spectral position. Subtle variations of composition allowed obtaining mixtures with helical pitch rapidly decreasing with temperature and providing the fine tuning of the SR band with respect to the laser emission wavelength.

Control of light polarization plane in the spectral region of the SR band was investigated; potential applications in different aspects of optical signal processing, all-optical switching and photonics are discussed.

Keywords:

• Chiral liquid crystal
• nonlinear optics
• photonic band gap
• polarization plane control