Frequency Agile Optical Filters using Nanoscopic Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals

Abstract

The ability to realise frequency agile filters has always been a major goal of materials and device scientists. Polymer dispersed liquid crystal materials (PDLCs), in which the droplets are deliberately produced with dimensions smaller than the Rayleigh limit for optical scatter, provide a means of realising this goal. At visible wavelengths the material has the appearance of a phase-homogeneous medium both with and without applied electric field. Refractive indices are an average of those of the liquid crystal and those of its host and can be described on the basis of effective medium approximations using orientationally averaged values for the randomly aligned LC material for the ambient state. On application of electric field, the individual liquid crystal molecules align with a resulting reduction in the effective index of the medium. Extensive studies of the variation of process parameters and their effect on the morphology of the composite have enabled field induced changes in refractive index in excess of 0.05 to be achieved without recourse to the use of polarisers and with little or no hysteresis effects. At wavelengths associated with WDM devices for telecommunication applications, the degree of scatter loss is negligible. Design trade-offs have been assessed for candidate tunable WDM filters based on resonant cavity devices.