Polarization control using nematic liquid crystals

Ruud A.W. Gelissen; Yu Huang; Nabeel A. Riza

doi:10.1117/12.391940

13 July 2000 Polarization control using nematic liquid crystals

Ruud A.W. Gelissen, Yu Huang, Nabeel A. Riza

Proceedings Volume 4046, Advances in Optical Information Processing IX; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.391940
Event: AeroSense 2000, 2000, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

A new type of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) based polarization independent 1 X 2 optical switch is demonstrated. Experiments show that this system is capable of converting any arbitrary input polarization into a horizontal or vertical output of high polarization extinction ratio (> 26 dB). Moreover, a basic polarization independent alignment tolerant 1 X 2 optical switch is proposed and demonstrated, comprising a NLC-based polarization controller in cascade with half wave plates. Experiments show that this system is capable of realizing a high switch contrast (> 27 dB), nearly independent on the input polarization. The measured polarization extinction ratio of the output light was about 40 dB. Our NLC-based polarization control provides low driving voltages (< 5 V), no moving parts, high performance and possible low insertion loss.

Citation Download Citation

Ruud A.W. Gelissen, Yu Huang, and Nabeel A. Riza "Polarization control using nematic liquid crystals", Proc. SPIE 4046, Advances in Optical Information Processing IX, (13 July 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.391940

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