Liquid-crystal laser optics: design, fabrication, and performance

We describe the development of laser optics utilizing liquid crystals. Devices discussed constitute passive optical elements for both low-power and high-power laser systems, operating in either the pulsed or cw mode. Designs and fabrication methods are given in detail for wave plates, circular polarizers, optical isolators, laser-blocking notch filters, and soft apertures. Performance data in the visible to near infrared show these devices to be useful alternatives to other technologies based on conventional glasses, crystals, or thin films. The issue of laser damage is examined on the basis of off-line threshold testing and daily use in OMEGA, the 24-beam Nd:glass laser system at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Results demonstrate that long-term survivability has been achieved.

[1]  G. Dubé.  Total internal reflection apodizers , 1974 .

[2]  George Dube.  Progress In Glass Components For Neodymium Lasers , 1983, Other Conferences.

[3]  J. Hunt,et al.  Suppression of self-focusing through low-pass spatial filtering and relay imaging. , 1978, Applied optics.

[4]  V. Yashin,et al.  BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS: Formation of a smooth transverse distribution of intensity in a light beam by a phase-rotating plate , 1978 .

[5]  Iam-Choon Khoo,et al.  Optically-induced molecular reorientation in nematic liquid crystals and nonlinear optical processes in the nanoseconds regime , 1987 .

[6]  Jacques Cognard,et al.  Alignment of nematic liquid crystals and their mixtures , 1982 .

[7]  J. Diels.  Apodized aperture using frustrated total reflection. , 1975, Applied optics.

[8]  R L Byer,et al.  Radial birefringent element and its application to laser resonator design. , 1980, Optics letters.

[9]  Aleksandr A. Manenkov,et al.  Nature of the cumulative effect in laser damage to optical materials , 1983 .

[10]  James E. Adams,et al.  Cholesteric Films as Optical Filters , 1971 .

[11]  T. Scheffer.  Twisted nematic display with cholesteric reflector , 1975 .

[12]  David Milam,et al.  Improving the bulk laser damage resistance of potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals by pulsed laser irradiation , 1982 .

[13]  V. I. Redkorechev,et al.  Formation of a beam of high optical quality in a multistage neodymium laser , 1981 .

[14]  D. Kinzer.  An Optical Technique for Measuring Liquid Crystal Cell Thickness , 1985 .

[15]  A. J. Campillo,et al.  Soft apertures for reducing damage in high-power laser-amplifier systems , 1974 .

[16]  Wong Ky,et al.  Third-harmonic-generation study of orientational order in nematic liquid crystals. , 1986 .

[17]  Shin-Tson Wu,et al.  Optical properties of thin nematic liquid crystal cells , 1986 .

[18]  E.W.S. Hee.  Fabrication of apodized apertures for laser beam attenuation , 1975 .

[19]  V. Yashin,et al.  Formation of the spatial structure of radiation in solid-state laser systems by apodizing and hard apertures , 1983 .

[20]  Hl. de Vries.  Rotatory power and other optical properties of certain liquid crystals , 1951 .

[21]  A. Penzkofer,et al.  Apodizing of intense laser beams with saturable dyes , 1979 .

[22]  A. M. Prokhorov,et al.  Formation of the radial distribution of intensity in a laser beam by "soft" apertures , 1976 .

[23]  Robert L. Byer,et al.  Radial intensity filters using radial birefringent elements , 1981 .

[24]  P. Madden,et al.  Measurement of the Nonlinear Susceptibility of Liquid Crystal Materials in the Isotropic Phase , 1986 .

[25]  Alfred Thelen,et al.  Design of Optical Minus Filters , 1971 .

[26]  Michael A. Lee,et al.  Hückel Model Calculations of Polarizability and Hyperpolarizability for Conjugated Molecules , 1987 .

[27]  Shin-Tson Wu,et al.  Infrared birefringence of liquid crystals , 1984 .