Slow light in liquid crystal media

Umberto Bortolozzo; Dong Wei; Jean-Pierre Huignard; Stefania Residori

doi:10.1117/1.OE.53.10.102704

23 July 2014 Slow light in liquid crystal media

Umberto Bortolozzo, Dong Wei, Jean-Pierre Huignard, Stefania Residori

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 53, Issue 10, 102704 (July 2014). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.53.10.102704

Abstract

Liquid crystal media are characterized by large and tunable dispersive properties and hence allow achievement of large group delays. At the same time, liquid crystals provide large areas and are easily reconfigurable and highly sensitive devices; they are, therefore, well adapted for interferometric applications. Two different ways of achieving slow light in liquid crystals are presented. The first method consists of exploiting photoisomerization-induced transparency in dye-doped chiral liquid crystals, and the second method makes use of two-wave mixing optical resonance in pure nematics. In both mechanisms, two beams are sent to the medium, where they create a grating, either of absorption or of refractive index. Both physical mechanisms are elucidated in the context of slow light, then, as examples of sensing applications, Doppler shift measurements and adaptive holography are presented.

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Umberto Bortolozzo, Dong Wei, Jean-Pierre Huignard, and Stefania Residori "Slow light in liquid crystal media," Optical Engineering 53(10), 102704 (23 July 2014). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.53.10.102704

Published: 23 July 2014

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