Smectic liquid crystal analog phase modulator

Abstract

This invention provides analog phase modulators comprising smetic liquid crystal cells wherein the layers are specifically not aligned perpendicular to the cell walls. The layers are either tilted with respect to the substrate or are in a chevron structure. Application of an analog electric field perpendicular to the cell walls bends the molecules in an analog fashion in a plane not parallel to the cell walls and thereby provides analog phase modulation of incident light. Analog phase modulation can not be directly provided by the surface-stabilized smectic liquid crystal cells known in the art, nor can analog tilting of SmC* liquid crystals be achieved. This invention further provides Fabry-Perot devices containing these analog phase modulators within the resonance cavity. The filter of this invention is optimally suited for wavelength-division multiplexing in photonic networks. It has high throughput, large tuning range, high resolution, and high modulation speed. The filter requires only small applied electric fields and has a very simple and inexpensive processing procedure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.