Spectral Properties of Photo-Aligned Photonic Crystal Fibers Infiltrated with Gold Nanoparticle-Doped Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

This paper describes our recent results on light propagation in photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) partially infiltrated with W212 ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) doped with 1–3 nm gold nanoparticles (NPs) with a concentration in the range of 0.1–0.5% wt. Based on our previous results devoted to PCFs infiltrated with nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) doped with gold NPs (GNPs), we extend our research line with FLCs doped with these NPs. To enhance the proper alignment of the NP-FLC nanocomposites inside PCFs, we applied an additional photo-aligning layer of SD-1 azo-dye material (DIC, Japan). Electro-optical response times and thermal tuning were studied in detail. We observed an improvement in response times for NP-FLC nanocomposites in comparison to the undoped FLC.

Stimuli-Responsive Photonic Crystals

“…Thus, it is possible to tune their dielectric constant by applying an external electric field. LCs are usually infiltrated inside a porous structure [78][79][80][81][82][122][123][124]. Criante et al fabricated a porous silicon dioxide/zirconium dioxide 1D photonic crystal infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal (Figure 3a).…”