Sensors at Your Fibre Tips: A Novel Liquid Crystal- Based Photonic Transducer for Sensing Systems

Author

Brodzeli, Zourab ; Silvestri, L. ; Michie, Andrew ; Qi Guo ; Pozhidaev, Evgeny P. ; Chigrinov, Vladimir ; Ladouceur, Francois

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. Eng. & Telecommun., UNSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Volume

31

Issue

17

fYear

2013

fDate

Sept.1, 2013

Firstpage

2940

Lastpage

2946

Abstract

Recent advances in both nano-fabrication and nano- materials open up rich new avenues in the optical sensing area. Using nano-grid electrodes, nanometer-scale photo-alignment layers and deformed helix ferro-electric liquid crystals with a sub-wavelength helix pitch of 150 nm, we have realised a fully integrated polarisation-based photonic transducer which exhibits fast response to an applied voltage/electric field, excellent linearity and allows multiplexing using standard, low cost telecom optical fibers.

Keywords

ferroelectric liquid crystals; fibre optic sensors; integrated optoelectronics; liquid crystal devices; multiplexing; nanophotonics; nanosensors; optical fibre communication; optical fibre polarisation; transducers; applied voltage; deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals; electric field; fibre sensors; integrated polarisation-based photonic transducer; liquid crystal-based photonic transducer; low cost telecom optical fibers; multiplexing; nanofabrication; nanogrid electrodes; nanomaterials; nanometer-scale photoalignment layers; optical sensing; standard optical fibers; subwavelength helix pitch; Gold; Harmonic analysis; Optical polarization; Optical sensors; Substrates; Voltage measurement; Liquid crystal devices; optical fiber transducers; voltage measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2013.2274455

Filename

6566078