Electrically tunable ring resonators incorporating nematic liquid crystals as cladding layers

Abstract

We have demonstrated electrical tuning in ring resonators fabricated from silicon-on-insulator wafers by incorporating nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) as the waveguide top and side cladding material. Photolithographically defined electrodes aligned around the ring resonator were used to control the orientation of the NLCs to modulate the cladding refractive index and, hence, the resonant wavelengths of the ring resonator.