Tunable Optical Grating Based on the Flexoelectric Effect in a Bent-Core Nematic Liquid Crystal

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevapplied.7.064032
• Publication Date: 2017-06-30T22:09:08Z
• Authors: Ying Xiang; Hong-Zhen Jing; Zhi-Dong Zhang; Wen-Jiang Ye; Ming-Ya Xu; Everett Wang; Péter Salamon; Nándor Éber; Ágnes Buka
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

Liquid-crystal display technology is ubiquitous, but these materials can also be used to make electrically tunable components for optics and photonics. The authors demonstrate voltage control of the wavelength flexoelectric domains in a transmissive diffraction grating, which enables dynamic light steering. They prove that mechanism pattern onset differs from switching between flexodomain states, they explain surprising finding response increasing much slower than decreasing voltage.