Optimization of liquid crystal devices based on weakly conductive layers for lensing and beam steering

Liquid crystals are mostly known for their use in displays, but over the past decade these materials have been applied in a number of other devices such as tunable lenses or beam steering devices. A common technique to realize a gradual electric field profile as is required to obtain a gradual refractive index profile in these applications is the use of weakly conductive materials. The weakly conductive layers are able to spread the voltage profile which is applied through well-conductive electrodes at the side of the weakly conductive layer. The simulation and design of such structures is not trivial because two or three dimensional quasi-static electric field profiles need to be calculated. This is due to the fact that the resistivity of the conductive layers and the dielectric properties of the liquid crystal are coupled. An exact solution requires solving a number of coupled differential equations. In this paper, we develop a model to simulate the RC-effects with an approximate model

Liquid Crystals on Ferroelectric Thin Films

Barium titanate (BTO) and lead zirconate titanate (PZT) are two of the most common ferroelectric materials used in applications. These two materials offer excellent dielectric, piezo-electric, electro-optic and pyro-electric properties. The excellent electro-optic properties of our PZT and BTO deposited thin films may lead to cheap and versatile ultra-fast electro-optic modulators on existing photonic platforms [1], such as the Si or the SiN nanophotonic platform. In this work however, we exploit the extremely high dielectric permittivity of PZT (in the order of 500 to 1000). The permittivity is quasi independent of the underlying substrate material (glass, glass + ITO, glass + Pt, Si, etc.). Liquid crystals exhibit electro-optic effects that are an order of magnitude larger compared to PZT, which makes them ideal materials for use in beam steering applications of focus tunable lenses. In these applications the liquid crystal imposes a spatially varying optical path length to light passing through the liquid crystal layer. By working with a number of separately addressable electrodes the optical path length variation can be accurately controlled. Using multi-electrode designs for example, tunable lenses with high optical quality have been demonstrated. One major problem of multi-electrode designs is the appearance of fringe fields which leads to unwanted behavior of the liquid crystal and may eventually lead to the formation of disclination lines which reduces the optical performance drastically. Using a PZT thin film, we demonstrate that the fringe fields are eliminated and that designs with fewer separately addressable electrodes are necessary. Tunable lenses with a liquid crystal layer integrated on top of a PZT layer are demonstrated [2]. Next to the experimental demonstration we provide numerical simulations of the effect of the high permittivity layer on the liquid crystal. [1] J.P. George, et al. Lanthanide-Assisted Deposition of Strongly Electro-optic PZT Thin Films on Silicon: Toward Integrated Active Nanophotonic Devices. ACS Appl. Mater. Inter. 7 13350-9 (2015) [2] O. Willekens, et al., Ferroelectric thin films with liquid crystal for gradient index applications, Optics Express (submitted

Liquid crystal devices with continuous phase variation based on high-permittivity thin films

Most liquid crystal devices use transparent conductive electrodes such as indium tin oxide (ITO) to apply a potential difference in order to achieve electro-optic switching. As an alternative, we study a device with narrow metallic electrodes in combination with dielectric layers with large dielectric permittivity. In this approach the applied voltage can be a continuous function of the lateral distance from the electrode line. Simulations for a one-dimensional beam-steering device show that the switching of the liquid crystal (LC) director depends indeed on the distance from the addressing electrodes and on the value of the relative permittivity. We show that in a device with electrodes spaced 60 pm apart, the LC director halfway between the electrodes shows a considerable reorientation, when a dielectric layer with permittivity of epsilon(r) = 550 is used, whereas no reorientation is observed for the uncoated reference sample at the same voltage. An added advantage is that the proposed configuration only contains dielectric materials, without resistive losses, which means that almost no heat is dissipated. This indicates that this technology could be used in low-power LC devices. The results show that using dielectric thin films with high relative permittivity in liquid crystal devices could form a cost-efficient and low-power alternative to many LC technologies where a gradient electric field is desirable

PZT-based transmissive liquid crystal lens approach

We report the design and fabrication of an electro-optical tunable liquid-crystal-based lens and analysis of its performance. The lens obtains its GRIN profile from multi-electrode addressing using a layer with high dielectric constant to extend and smoothen out the horizontal electric field between the large interelectrode distances

High dielectric constant materials for low power liquid crystal tunable lenses

We have demonstrated the advantageous effect of adding a layer of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) to a vertical field switching (VFS) liquid crystal lens. Simulations show that because of the high dielectric constant of PZT, the voltage profile and hence the director tilt become more smoothly varying, similar to the effect of a potential divider. We fabricated a tunable focal length liquid crystal lens with PZT and compared its performance to that of one without the PZT layer

Reflective liquid crystal hybrid beam-steerer

We report on efficient optical beam-steering using a hot-embossed reflective blazed grating in combination with liquid crystal. A numerical simulation of the electrical switching characteristics of the liquid crystal is performed and the results are used in an FDTD optical simulator to analyze the beam deflection. The corresponding experiment on the realized device is performed and is found to be in good agreement. Beam deflection angles of 4.4° upon perpendicular incidence are found with low applied voltages of 3.4V. By tilting the device with respect to the incoming optical beam it can be electronically switched such that the beam undergoes either total internal reflection or reflection with a tunable angle