Tunable all-optical switching in periodic structures with liquid-crystal defects

Abstract

We suggest that tunable orientational nonlinearity of nematic liquid crystals can be employed for all-optical switching in periodic photonic structures with liquid-crystal defects. We consider a one-dimensional periodic structure of Si layers with a local defect created by infiltrating a liquid crystal into a pore, and demonstrate, by solving numerically a system of coupled nonlinear equations for the nematic director and the propagating electric field, that the light-induced Freedericksz transition can lead to a sharp switching and diode operation in the photonic devices.

10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Optics Express

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Reversible nonreciprocity in photonic structures infiltrated with liquid crystals
• Experimental Realization of a Reflective Optical Limiter
• All-optical switching and multistability in photonic structures with liquid crystal defects
• Voltage-induced defect mode interaction in a one-dimensional photonic crystal with a twisted-nematic defect layer
• Optomechanics of liquid crystals for dynamical optical response of photonic structures