Kerr effect and Kerr constant enhancement in vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals

Abstract

In this article, we review recently achieved Kerr effect progress in novel liquid crystal (LC) material: vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal (VADHFLC). With an increasing applied electric field, the induced inplane birefringence of LCs shows quadratic nonlinearity. The theoretical calculations and experimental details are illustrated. With an enhanced Kerr constant to 130 nm/V 2 , this VADHFLC cell can achieve a 2π modulation by a small efficient electric field with a fast response around 100 µs and thus can be employed in both display and photonics devices.

A review on magneto-optical ceramics for Faraday isolators

“…This physical phenomenon is called magneto-optical (MO) effect [1]. MO effects include the Faraday effect [2,3], Kerr effect [4,5], Zeeman effect [6], Cotton-Mouton effect [7] and so on. To date, the Faraday effect and Kerr effect are the most widely studied and applied MO effects.…”

Microsecond high‐contrast continuous 2.25π phase modulation based on non‐linear Kerr effect of vertically aligned deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal

“…Specifically, the common liquid crystals system maintains optical anisotropy regardless of whether the external field is applied or not. In Kerr effect devices, the birefringence shows non‐linear voltage dependence, 13,15 with different indices of refraction for the linearly polarized light parallel or perpendicular to the applied field. The difference in index of refraction induced by electric field, 16 is given by where is induced birefringence, is wavelength of incident light, E is the applied electric field, and is Kerr constant.…”

“…Various materials and methods are proposed in the past decades. Blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC), 9 cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC), 17 and ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) 15 are the best potential candidates for the Kerr‐effect‐based phase modulation. First, in the condition without electrical field, BPLC 18 shows quasi‐optical isotropy ( ) due to high symmetry in the structure of their cubic lattices, the refractive index ellipsoid is spherical.…”