Smectic Liquid Crystal Waveguides with Cylindrical Geometry

Abstract

Abstract We have shown that the homeotropic alignment of smectic-A liquid crystals inside a ∼ 150 μm diameter glass capillary satisfies the classic Frank solution. Optical loss as low as 1.7 dB/cm, including interface losses, has been obtained from these waveguides. Very interesting multimode propagation characteristics have been observed and are compared to similar waveguides filled with nematic liquid crystals.