Liquid Crystalline Electro-Optical Modulator of Submegahertz Range

Abstract

A liquid crystalline (LC) electro-optical modulator providing an electro-optical response time up to 400 nanoseconds with a modulation frequency up to 500 kHz has been developed. The ferroelectric liquid crystal FLC-576 obtained by us was used as the electro-optical medium of the modulator. Its helix pitch р0 is much smaller than wavelengths of visible light (р0 < 100 nm). The liquid crystal operates in the deformed helix ferroelectric mode (DHF-effect) under the action of electric fields. The controlling electric fields are less than a critical field of helix unwinding. At high frequencies of the control voltage (over 10 kHz), the heating of electro-optical cell by repolarization currents of FLC can occur up to the temperature of phase transition from ferroelectric to paraelectric phase, which leads to the cessation of electro-optical modulation. The work experimentally and theoretically examines the self-heating issues of electro-optical modulators depending on the liquid crystal layer thickness, frequency and strength of applied electric field. The heat removal conditions from the liquid crystal cell have been determined and experimentally implemented. Under these conditions the LC is in the smectic C* ferroelectric phase temperature range, which is necessary to provide electro-optical modulation in submegaherts diapason.