Optical tuning of silicon photonic structures with nematic liquid crystal claddings

Abstract

An analysis of and experimental demonstration of active optical tuning of silicon strip waveguides with methyl red doped nematic liquid crystal claddings is presented. Under low-power irradiation by polarized light, the reorientation of the nematic, the resulting index change, and phase shift produce a tuning range of 5.6 nm for the microresonator resonances.