IEEE Photonics Technology Letters · 1999 · 46 citations · 10 references
Natural SciencesElectrical EngineeringMaterials ScienceNanotechnologyOpticsPhotonicsElectro-optic MaterialsLiquid Crystal MaterialsLiquid CrystalsOptical ResonatorsOptical SwitchingRefractive IndexNematic Liquid CrystalsOptical FilteringOptical FiltersPolarization-dependent LossTunable FiltersTunable Optical FiltersTuning RangeWavelength Tuning
An electrically tunable optical filter has been developed that uses a polymer containing fine droplets of nematic liquid crystal as the active cavity in a Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI). This FPI filter, whose finesse was 62, had a free spectral range of 37 nm in the 1.55-μm range with a full-width at half maximum of 0.6 nm and a transmission loss of 2.4 dB. The polarization dependent loss was smaller than 0.17 dB. The transmitted peak wavelength decreased with an electric field. This resulted in a tuning range of 10 nm at 300 V. The switching time was about 370 μs.
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