1999/12/22 by Valentina S. U. Fazio, S. T. Lagerwall, V. Zauls +4 · 4 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemistry #Composite material #Dielectric #Diode #Ferroelectricity #Hyperpolarizability #Laser #Liquid Crystal Research Advancements #Liquid crystal #Materials science #Nonlinear optical #Nonlinear optics #Nonlinear system #Optical power #Optics #Optoelectronics #Photonic and Optical Devices #Photopolymer #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics #Polymer #Polymerization #Second-harmonic generation #Thermal stability #Waveguide #cond-mat.soft #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s101890070016
published in The European Physical Journal E 3(3), 245-251 (Springer Science+Business Media) · LaTeX2e article, 15 pages, 10 figures, 11 EPS files, submitted to Physical Review E
arxiv created 1999/12/22 · openalex publication_date 2000/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A binary mixture of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) was used for the design of a channel waveguide. The FLCs possess two important functionalities: a chromophore with a high hyperpolarizability β and photoreactive groups. The smectic liquid crystal is aligned in layers parallel to the glass plates in a sandwich geometry. This alignment offers several advantages, such as that moderate electric fields are sufficient to achieve a high degree of polar order. The arrangement was then permanently fixed by photopolymerization which yielded a polar network possessing a high thermal and mechanical stability which did not show any sign of degradation within the monitored period of several months. The linear and nonlinear optical properties have been measured and all four independent components of the nonlinear susceptibility tensor d have been determined. The off-resonant d-coefficients are remarkably high and comparable to those of the best known inorganic materials. The alignment led to an inherent channel waveguide for p-polarized light without additional preparation steps. The photopolymerization did not induce scattering sites in the waveguide and the normalized losses were less than 2 dB/cm. The material offers a great potential for the design of nonlinear optical devices such as frequency doublers of low power laser diodes.