Hybrid organic-inorganic photorefractives

Gary Cook; Christopher A. Wyres; Mathew J. Deer; David Caradoc Jones

doi:10.1117/12.507978

5 January 2004 Hybrid organic-inorganic photorefractives

Gary Cook, Christopher A. Wyres, Mathew J. Deer, David Caradoc Jones

Proceedings Volume 5213, Liquid Crystals VII; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.507978
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The very high birefringence of liquid crystals makes them attractive for photorefractive applications. However, the drawbacks of using liquid crystals as photorefractives include a small phase shift between the optical and refractive index gratings, coarse grating spacings with narrow beam intersection angles, operation usually restricted to the Raman-Nath regime, a need to apply an external electric field, and, with most geometries, a need to tilt the cell at an angle to the grating k-vector. In this paper, we describe two-beam coupling with hybrid photorefractive cells comprising a nematic liquid crystal layer adjacent to inorganic photorefractive windows. In this arrangement, the underlying photorefractive properties are determined by the inorganic windows while the liquid crystal molecules amplify the overall refractive index modulation. Using this technique we have obtained Bragg matched liquid crystal gain coefficients of more than 1600 cm^-1, grating periods of less than 300 nm and a wide range of beam intersection angles without the need to apply an external field.

Citation Download Citation

Gary Cook, Christopher A. Wyres, Mathew J. Deer, and David Caradoc Jones "Hybrid organic-inorganic photorefractives", Proc. SPIE 5213, Liquid Crystals VII, (5 January 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.507978

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