Photonic Crystal Fibers infiltrated with Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

In the letter we present preliminary results of research on thermal and electrical tunability of photonic crystal fibers (PCF) infiltrated with ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) molecules. From this combination we expect new spectral properties to be observed, mainly due to the fast switching time of FLC molecules that can lead to the design of a new kind of optical filters. We have also obtained promising results about the spectral properties of photonic ferroelectric liquid crystal fibers (PFLCF), as well as orientation of FLC molecules inside PCF microholes. Full Text: PDF References: P. St. J. Russell, J. Lightwave Technol. 24, 4729-4749 (2006). [CrossRef] T. Larsen, A. Bjarklev, D. Hermann, and J. Broeng, Opt. Express 11, 2589-2596 (2003). [CrossRef] T. R. Wolinski, K. Szaniawska, K. Bondarczuk, P. Lesiak, A.W. Domanski, R. Dabrowski, E. Nowinowski-Kruszelnicki, J. Wojcik, "Propagation properties of photonic crystals fibers filled with nematic liquid crystals", Opto-Electronics Rev. 13(2), 59-64 (2005). S. Ertman, T. Nasilowski, T.R.Wolinski, H. Thienpont, "Highly birefringent microstructured fiber selectively filled with lossy material", Phot. Lett. of Poland 1(1), 13-15 (2009). M. Tefelska, M. Chychlowski, T.R. Wolinski, R. Dąbrowski, J. Wojcik, "Tunable attenuation in photonic liquid crystal fibers", Phot. Lett. of Poland 1(2), 97-99 (2009). M.W. Haakestad, T. T. Alkeskjold, M. D. Nielsen, L. Scolari, J. Riishede, H. E. Engan, and A. Bjarklev, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 17, 819–821 (2005). [CrossRef] F. Du, Y.-Q. Lu, and S.-T. Wu, “Electrically tunable liquidcrystal photonic crystal ?ber,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 85,2181–2183 (2004). [CrossRef] M. Tefelska, T.R. Wolinski, R. Dąbrowski, J. Wojcik, "Chiral nematic liquid crystals as an alternative filling in photonic crystal fibers", Phot. Lett. of Poland 2(1), 28-30 (2010). S. Mathews, Y. Semenova, G. Rajan, G. Farrell, Proc. of SPIE 7316, 73161E-1 – 73161E-6 (2009). [CrossRef] S. Mathews, Y. Semenova, G. Farrell, Electr. Lett. 45(12) 617 - 618 (2009). [CrossRef]