Digitally tunable wavelength filter and laser

A novel nonmechanical, digitally tunable, polarization insensitive and optically transparent wavelength filter using holograms electro-optically written on a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) spatial light modulator (SLM) has been constructed and operated to tune to discrete wavelengths spaced by 1.3 nm. The filter has been incorporated in a ring laser which is tunable over a range of 38.5 nm across the erbium window, giving output powers of 10 mW. Both wavelength filter and tunable laser are suitable for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) applications.     

铁电液晶显示的交流稳态技术与等效电路模型改进

针对交流稳态技术提出了一种改进的能体现铁电液晶电学、光学各向异性的等效电路模型.通过将介电张量与电场的耦合作用和由表面定向层引起的锚定能量以等效源的形式表达在电路模型中,成功地将模型拓展到介电各向异性情况下.分别就正、负性介电各向异性及应用交流稳态技术时的光响应特性和动力学机制进行了模拟,并给出了对应的介电扭矩、铁电扭矩和极化反转电流.模拟结果吻合于理论分析及文献报道的结果,表明了电路模型的有效性.     

Analogue-driven bistable ferroelectric liquid crystals

This paper presents a new driving method allowing fast analogue light modulation with bistable ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC). The method is evaluated using a functional virtual prototyping design flow. First, a surface stabilized binary FLC cell is modeled in VHDL-AMS language on the basis of well-known theories of FLC. Some physical and environmental phenomena are added (e.g. electronic behavior of the cell, temperature, etc.) in order to improve its reliability. Once the model is validated, a virtual prototype of a FLC pixel is performed by associating the model of the FLC cell and the model of an appropriate wave generator. Simulations show that our new driving method works, but with certain limitations. The most critical one seems to be the high temperature dependence of the pixel response.     

Demodulation Pixel Based on Static Drift Fields

A novel pixel architecture for two-dimensional pixel parallel demodulation of modulated light waves is introduced, enabling real-time three-dimensional (3-D) imaging. Applications for such methods can be found in the field of surveillance, robotics, automotive, and industry security applications. The pixel architecture is based on large areas of static drift fields and relatively small demodulation regions. The large area of static drift field forms the basic photodetection region. The constant drift field enables the very fast transport of photo-generated charges to the sampling region where demodulation of the light signal is performed. The main advantages compared to recently used demodulation pixels are lower power consumption and higher optical fill factor or sensitivity. The first implementation is a pixel of 40times40 mum ² size with 25% optical fill factor. Measurements prove the concept of transporting photo-generated charges within less than 1 ns to the demodulation node. The applicability of the pixel in 3-D imaging applications is highlighted by distance measurements achieving millimeter distance resolution     

Photolithography by a tunable electro-optical lithium niobate phase array

Photolithography experiments are performed by means of an optical phase mask with electrooptically tunable phase step. The phase mask consists of a 2-dimensional hexagonal lattice of inverted ferroelectric domains fabricated on a z-cut lithium niobate substrate. The electro-optically tunable phase step, between inverted domain, is obtained by the application of an external electric field along the z axis of the crystal via transparent electrodes. The collimated beam of an argon laser passes through the phase mask and the near field intensity patterns, at different planes of the Talbot length and for different values of the applied voltage, are used for photolithographic experiments. Preliminary results are shown and further applications are discussed.     

Electronic tunability of ferroelectric liquid crystal infiltrated photonic crystal fibre

The electronic tunability of ferroelectric liquid crystal filled photonic crystal fibres is demonstrated for the first time. The tunability is obtained in the wavelength range of 1500-1600-nm, with a free spectral range of-20-nm. The electronic tunability is achieved by applying an electric field onto the infiltrated photonic crystal fibre which facilitates the photonic bandgap tuning owing to the microsecond-order switching speeds of ferroelectric liquid crystals. The polarised transmission spectrum shows the behaviour of a tunable notch filter with a change in applied voltage. The results obtained could pave the way for the fabrication of fast tunable all-in-fibre devices in the telecom wavelength range.     

温度对铁电液晶电调谐滤波特性影响的研究

在改变外加电场实现铁电液晶电调谐滤波中,由于铁电液晶的螺距和自发极化强度对温度变化很敏感,从而为铁电液晶电调谐滤波器的应用和准确度的提高带来了困难。从铁电液晶的螺距和自发极化强度与温度的关系出发,讨论了温度对铁电液晶双折射的影响,给出了铁电液晶电调谐滤波器的透射率随温度变化的关系式,并进行了数值计算。结果表明,温度升高时,透射率和带宽增大,透射峰波长向短波长方向移动,温度变化对铁电液晶电调滤波特性的影响远小于电场变化的影响。     

A Magnetically Tunable Microstrip IMPATT Oscillator (Short Papers)

Magnetically tunable resonators have been constructed in microstrip on a ferrite substrate. A large tuning range is obtained with an external magnetic field applied in the direction of the RF propagation, 17 MHz/Oe for magnetic fields from 0 to 30 Oe. A variable frequency microstrip oscillator which uses this effect is described; measurements made on an X-band IMPATT oscillator illustrate a tuning range from 9.4 to 10.5 GHz with an output power of 330 mW /spl plusmn/ 0.5 dB.     

SSFLC optical directional coupler switch with a short devicelength: a proposal

A novel vertical directional coupler waveguide switch composed of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) is proposed and analyzed. The surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal break (SSFLC) is used as an active separation layer between passive waveguides. To decrease the switching length, the waveguide switch is based on the power crossing the separation layer rather than coupling between waveguides. The calculated results relevant to the switch parameters such as the switching length, switching time, capacitance, and extinction ratio are presented. Because of the large birefringence of FLC, a very short switching length, less than 60 μm, is possible     

Modelling of binary phase modulation in surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal spatial light modulators

Modelling of binary phase modulation is required for optimal performance of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC) on silicon SLMs when used in coherent optical systems. This paper presents a modelling technique by which an HSpice model can be provided for characterization of phase modulation properties for designing FLC-on-silicon SLMs. The simulation and experimental measurements of phase modulation are described. For the theoretical model simulation, FLC parameter measurements are described. We experimentally verify the modelled prediction of phase modulation by investigating reflective FLC test cells. We have shown reasonable agreement within 9% between the measured and simulated values of phase modulation.     

Generation and distribution of a wide-band continuously tunable millimeter-wave signal with an optical external modulation technique

A new technique to generate and distribute a wide-band continuously tunable millimeter-wave signal using an optical external modulator and a wavelength-fixed optical notch filter is proposed. The optical intensity modulator is biased to suppress the odd-order optical sidebands. The wavelength-fixed optical notch filter is then used to filter out the optical carrier. Two second-order optical sidebands are obtained at the output of the notch filter. A millimeter-wave signal that has four times the frequency of the microwave drive signal is generated by beating the two second-order optical sidebands at a photodetector. Since no tunable optical filter is used, the system is easy to implement. A system using an LiNbO/sub 3/ intensity modulator and a fiber Bragg grating filter is built. A stable and high spectral purity millimeter-wave signal tunable from 32 to 50 GHz is obtained by tuning the microwave drive signal from 8 to 12.5 GHz. The integrity of the generated millimeter-wave signal is maintained after transmission over a 25-km standard single-mode fiber. Theoretical analysis on the harmonic suppression with different modulation depths and filter attenuations is also discussed.     

基于铁电液晶电控双折射的调谐滤波器的研究

将铁电液晶作为缺陷层引入一维光子晶体中,基于液晶的电控双折射,形成快速窄带调谐滤波器.用传输矩阵法研究了铁电液晶缺陷光子晶体的可调谐滤波特性,计算了电场对滤波器透射峰的位置、强度、个数和带宽的影响,结果表明该滤波器呈现良好的滤波功能.     

Elimination of Zig—zag Defects in Surface—stabilized Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Cells

The elimination of zig-zag defects in polyimide-coated surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquied crystal(SSFLC)cells is carried out by appliying a low-frequency electric field.It has been achieved when the thickness of SSFLC cell is 3μm.The optical spectral transmittance measurement confirmed that there is no change of layer structure,and the memory capability was not improved.The different effects of low-frequency electric field applied on the different thickness FLC cells have been observed.and experimental results were presented.     

A compact external cavity wavelength tunable laser without an intracavity etalon

We propose a novel external cavity wavelength tunable laser (ECTL) configuration without an etalon inside the cavity. ECTL consists only of a semiconductor optical amplifier with an integrated phase section, and a liquid crystal tunable mirror. We successfully demonstrated excellent performances of the ECTL with fiber coupled output power of more than 50 mW over a 40-nm tuning range, sidemode suppression ratio of better than 45 dB, relative intensity noise of better than -148 dB/Hz, and linewidth of narrower than 2.3 MHz.     

External cavity wavelength tunable laser with on-chip VOA using etched mirror based integration technology

An external cavity wavelength tunable laser using a novel gain chip with a monolithically integrated variable optical attenuator is demonstrated. An output power tuning range of 55 dB and output powers in excess of 15 dBm were obtained over the whole C-band.     

电场对铁电液晶分子排列的影响

本文通过在铁电液晶相变过程中施加交变电场的方法，研究了电场对铁电液晶分子排列的作用。实验表明在液晶相变点附近施加低频交变电场，能够使铁电液晶分子形成均匀排列，从而提高了铁电液晶器件的记忆效应与对比度，最后我们给出了合理的理论解释。     

An Optical Millimeter-Wave Generation Technique Based on Phase Modulation and Brillouin-Assisted Notch-Filtering

A novel approach to generate continuously tunable microwave and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) signals is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on an optical phase modulator and a Brillouin-assisted notch-filtering technique. The strong optical carrier of the phase modulated signal is deeply suppressed by using stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a dispersion-shifted-fiber ring while the sidebands keep unchanged. Therefore, only even-order electrical harmonics exist at the output of a photodetector. As this SBS-assisted carrier-filter is narrow bandwidth and wavelength-independent, a wavelength-flexible way of optical generation mm-wave signals can be successfully realized.      

Reflective terahertz tunable polarization controller

This paper proposes an optical device which can continuously change the polarization state of terahertz (THz) waves. The device consists of metal gate, anti-reflection coatings, liquid crystal and mirror. By changing the refractive index of liquid crystal in the interface between the metal gate and the mirror, the phase difference between two beams with orthogonal polarization is varied and a continuous phase shift is achieved. The phase shift of the device is calculated by using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, and the transmittance and reflectance are calculated by using the rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) method. The results reveal that the structure can realize continuously tunable phase shift for THz wave at 1 THz.     

连续可调光延迟线技术研究

光延迟线在雷达技术、全光信号处理、光通信等领域中有着广泛的用途,但是目前通用的可调光延迟线是增量可调而非连续可调的.连续可调技术大大提高了延迟精度,代表了光延迟线的发展方向.因此介绍了几种连续调谐光信号时延技术,具体分析了它们的实现原理和特点.     

Ferroelectric Response and Induced Biaxiality in the Nematic Phase of Bent‐Core Mesogens

The still undiscovered fluid ferroelectric nematic phase is expected to exhibit a much faster and easier response to an external electric field compared to conventional ferroelectric smectic liquid crystals; therefore, the discovery of such a phase could open new avenues in electro‐optic device technology. Here, experimental evidence of a ferroelectric response to a switching electric field in a low molar mass nematic liquid crystal is reported and connected with field‐induced biaxiality. The fluid is made of bent‐core polar molecules and is nematic over a range of 120 °C. Combining repolarization current measurements, electro‐optical characterizations, X‐ray diffraction and computer simulations, ferroelectric switching is demonstrated and it is concluded that the response is due to field‐induced reorganization of polar cybotactic groups within the nematic phase. This work represents significant progress toward the realization of ferroelectric fluids that can be aligned at command with a simple electric field.