Polarization and Spectral Properties of a Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Fabry-Perot Slab

Abstract

We report the creation of a double-feedback optical element based on a Fabry-Perot cavity filled with a planar aligned cholesteric liquid crystal mixture. The reflection band of the liquid crystal is in the near infra-red region. The polarization and spectral properties of this element are characterized experimentally and simulated theoretically. Preliminary experimental results are obtained for the transmission's dependence upon the orientation of the linear polarisation plane and the polarization state of the incident probe beam, with a wavelength out of resonance. The corresponding theoretical simulation results are in qualitative agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords:

• Cholesteric liquid crystals
• distributed feedback
• dual frequency liquid crystal
• electrooptic switch
• Fabry-Perot resonator
• liquid crystals
• polarimetry
• resonant reflection

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Professor Beliakov for discussions. We also thank the financial support of Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI), Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).