Ultrafast switchable wide angle negative refraction in novel dual-frequency liquid crystal mixture

Abstract

Ultrafast switchable wide angle negative refraction in a novel dual-frequency liquid crystal mixture is demonstrated experimentally. Laterally fluorinated isothiocyanato phenyl-tolane liquid crystal compound is doped into Merck MLC-2048 to acquire the high birefringence dual-frequency liquid crystal. The maximum negative refraction angle achieved is about 12° and the switching time is only 25 ms for a 40-μm cell which is two orders faster than switchable negative refraction achieved before in nematic liquid crystals. Such properties provide a feasible approach to design negative refraction devices based on liquid crystals.

Keywords:

• negative refraction
• fast switchable
• high birefringence
• dual-frequency liquid crystal

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (11174274, 11174279, 61205021 and 11204299) and the Science Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics.