Liquid crystal rotatable waveplates

Author

Ohtera, Yasuo ; Chiba, Takafumi ; Kawakami, Shojiro

Author_Institution

Res. Inst. of Electr. Commun., Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan

Volume

8

Issue

3

fYear

1996

fDate

3/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

390

Lastpage

392

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate rotatable waveplates using liquid crystal for the first time which can be used for polarization control. To realize a waveplate with an arbitrary direction of birefringence, we use a vertically-aligned nematic liquid crystal cell with a lateral electric field. The orientation of the waveplate can be rotated endlessly. It was confirmed that the direction of the waveplate could be rotated endlessly at a rate of 7200/spl deg//s, which is sufficient to construct polarization controlling devices for most SMF transmission systems.

Keywords

birefringence; liquid crystal devices; nematic liquid crystals; optical communication equipment; optical elements; optical fibre polarisation; optical rotation; SMF transmission systems; birefringence direction; lateral electric field; liquid crystal; liquid crystal rotatable waveplates; polarization control; polarization controlling devices; vertically-aligned nematic liquid crystal cell; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Apertures; Electrodes; Geometrical optics; Glass; Liquid crystals; Optical polarization; Optical retarders; Optical saturation; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.481127

Filename

481127