Title

Wavelength independent "Babinet compensator optical limiter" (BCOL)

Authors

Authors

F. E. Hernandez; S. S. Yang; D. J. Hagan;E. W. Van Stryland

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Mol. Cryst. Liquid Cryst.

Keywords

optical limiters; liquid crystals; polarization changes; ABSORPTION; Crystallography

Abstract

We present a new, wavelength-independent optical limiter based on the Babinet compensator principle. The initial polarization change of an incident optical wave passing through a nematic liquid crystal placed between two parallel polarizers is compensated with a second identical sample, with its director Vector perpendicular to that of the first cell. If there is some small absorption in just one of the cells, there is a thermally induced index change that produces an irradiance-dependent retardance. The resulting polarization change causes a decrease in the transmittance by more than one order of magnitude as the input energy is increased. Experiments were performed using a frequency-doubled 7 ns pulsed Nd-YAG laser, at a 10 Hz repetition rate as a pump, and a cw He-Ne as a probe to monitor the pump laser generated limiting effect.

Journal Title

Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals

Volume

358

Publication Date

1-1-2001

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Language

English

First Page

301

Last Page

310

WOS Identifier

WOS:000168132300025

ISSN

1058-725X

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