Electrically Switchable Planar Liquid-Crystal Elements For Applications Of Integrated Photonics

The paper presents low-voltage liquid crystal (LC) structures based on dual- and multi-domain nematics alignment for in-plane beam steering applications. The devices operation principle is based on total internal reflection (TIR) of an extraordinary beam at the refractive index interface separating LC domains with different alignments. The proposed optical structures implement waveguide propagation, branching, multiplexing, as well as spatial polarization separation, switching and angular deviation of linearly polarized light beams. Planar-type LC elements demonstrate significant advantages, offering much promise in design and manufacturing of photonics integrated devices.