High dn(o)/dT liquid crystals and their applications in a thermally tunable liquid crystal photonic crystal fiber

    Authors

    J. Li; S. Gauza; S. T. Wu; T. T. Alkeskjold; J. Laegsgaard;A. Bjarklev

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Mol. Cryst. Liquid Cryst.

    Keywords

    high dn(o)/dT; liquid crystals; microstructure devices; photonic crystal; fiber; REFRACTIVE-INDEXES; BANDGAP FIBERS; DEVICES; Crystallography

    Abstract

    We have analyzed the physical origins of the temperature gradient of the ordinary refractive index (dn(o)/dT) of liquid crystals. To achieve a large dn(o)/dT , high birefringence (Delta n) and low clearing temperature play crucial roles. Based on these guidelines, we formulated two exemplary liquid crystal mixtures, designated as UCF-1 and UCF-2. The dn(o)/dT of UCF-1 is similar to 4x higher than that of 5CB at room temperature. By infiltrating UCF-1 into the air holes of a three-rod core photonic crystal fiber, we demonstrate a thermally tunable photonic bandgap fiber with tuning sensitivity of 27 nm/degrees C at room temperature. The insertion loss is less than 0.5 dB.

    Journal Title

    Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals

    Volume

    453

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    355

    Last Page

    370

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000238449700028

    ISSN

    1542-1406

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