Title

Two-Photon Microfabrication Of Switchable Diffractive Optical Devices

Keywords

Electro-optic devices; Liquid-crystal grating devices; Switchable diffractive optical devices; Two-photon microfabrication; Two-photon-induced polymerization

Abstract

Electrically switchable liquid-crystal-filled optical gratings were fabricated using two-photon three-dimensional microfabrication based on two-photon-induced polymerization (TPIP). A tightly-focused femtosecond pulsed laser beam was used to pattern polymeric grating fringes with a period of 5 μm on glass substrate coated with indium tin oxide (ITO) and a rubbed polyimide liquid-crystal alignment layer. Switchable diffractive devices were prepared by sandwiching a cyanobiphenyl nematic liquid-crystal mixture between a patterned and a blank ITO/alignment layer-coated substrate such that the liquid-crystal director was parallel to the grating fringes. Application of a voltage across the ITO electrodes rotates the director to normal to the substrate surface leading to near index matching of the liquid crystal and polymer fringes and a strong reduction in the diffraction efficiency. These switchable liquid-crystal diffractive devices exhibit a switching contrast ranging from 17 to 100 for the ±1 diffraction orders for s-polarized light at 30 Vpp. This work demonstrates the utility of TPIP microlithography for producing active micro-optical devices.

Publication Date

12-1-2004

Publication Title

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Volume

5662

Number of Pages

83-88

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.595871

Socpus ID

20344398208 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/20344398208

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