Open AccessWavelength and bandwidth tunable photonic stopband of ferroelectric liquid crystals
Author(s) -
Ryotaro Ozaki,
Hiroshi Moritake
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.006191
Subject(s) - stopband , optics , materials science , ferroelectricity , wavelength , photonic crystal , bandwidth (computing) , liquid crystal , achromatic lens , optoelectronics , physics , dielectric , telecommunications , resonator , computer science
The chiral smectic C phase of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) has a self-assembling helical structure which is regarded as a one-dimensional pseudo-photonic crystal. It is well known that a stopband of a FLC can be tuned in wavelength domain by changing temperature or electric field. We here have demonstrated an FLC stopband with independently tunable wavelength and bandwidth by controlling temperature and incident angle. At highly oblique incidence, the stopband does not have polarization dependence. Furthermore, the bandwidth at highly oblique incidence is much wider than that at normal incidence. The mechanism of the tunable stopband is clarified by considering the reflection at oblique incidence.