Liquid crystal technology development for telecommunication applications

For more than two decades, liquid crystal (LC) technology has proved to be highly reliable in information display, military, and medical applications. The unique characteristics of liquid-crystal-based components make them ideally suited for application to the telecommunications industry where they are currently being developed for high-bit-rate optical switches and other novel products. Previous application of liquid crystal components tended to focus on the visible part of the optical spectrum. This paper focuses on the electro-optic properties and applicability of the LC twisted nematic mode for optical switching components in the near IR.