organic devices
Photonic Switches Based on Liquid Crystal Electro-optical Waveguides
We present an overview on a class of photonic devices based on a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) infiltrated in confined geometries acting as a core of optical waveguides. This approach allows to obtain switchable waveguide devices by exploiting the combination of electrooptic effect of the NLC characterized by an attracting low driving voltage characteristic and high extinction ratio. In switchable LC optical waveguides in SiO2/Si V-groove an on-off ratio of over 40 dB has been experimentally demonstrated by applying a square-wave voltage with an amplitude of only 8 V.