Controllable light diffraction in woodpile photonic crystals filled with liquid crystal

Journal Article · Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4905695· OSTI ID:22399082

Ho, Chih-Hua; Zeng, Hao; Wiersma, Diederik S. ^[1]; Cheng, Yu-Chieh; Maigyte, Lina; Trull, Jose; Cojocaru, Crina ^[2]; Staliunas, Kestutis ^[2]

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1. European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), University of Florence, via Nello Carrara 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Italy)
2. Departament de Física i Enginyeria Nuclear, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Colom 11, 08222 Terrassa (Spain)

An approach to switching between different patterns of light beams transmitted through the woodpile photonic crystals filled with liquid crystals is proposed. The phase transition between the nematic and isotropic liquid crystal states leads to an observable variation of the spatial pattern transmitted through the photonic structure. The transmission profiles in the nematic phase also show polarization sensibility due to refractive index dependence on the field polarization. The experimental results are consistent with a numerical calculation by Finite Difference Time Domain method.

• OSTI ID: 22399082
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 2; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
DIFFRACTION
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
LIGHT TRANSMISSION
LIQUID CRYSTALS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHOTONS
POLARIZATION
REFRACTIVE INDEX
VARIATIONS
VISIBLE RADIATION