Search results for "Liquid Crystal"
showing 10 items of 492 documents
Transparent Boundary Condition for Oseen-Frank Model. Application for NLC Cells With Patterned Electrodes
2015
In the present work a novel application of Transparent Boundary Conditions (TBC) to nematic liquid crystal cells (NLCC) with planar alignment and a patterned electrode is studied. This device is attracting great interest since it allows soliton steering by optically and externally induced waveguides. We employ the continuum Oseen-Frank theory to find the tilt and twist angle distributions in the cell under the one-constant approximation. The electric field distribution takes into account the whole 2D permittivity tensor for the transverse coordinates. Standard finite difference time domain methods together with an iterative method is applied to find an approximate solution to our coupled pr…
Anomalous Fluctuations of Nematic Order in Solutions of Semiflexible Polymers
2016
The nematic ordering in semiflexible polymers with contour length $L$ exceeding their persistence length $\ell_p$ is described by a confinement of the polymers in a cylinder of radius $r_{eff}$ much larger than the radius $r_\rho$, expected from the respective concentration of the solution. Large scale Molecular Dynamics simulations combined with Density Functional Theory are used to locate the Isotropic-Nematic ($I-N$)-transition and to validate this cylindrical confinement. Anomalous fluctuations, due to chain deflections from neighboring chains in the nematic phase are proposed. Considering deflections as collective excitations in the nematically ordered phase of semiflexible polymers el…
Novel stripe textures in nonchiral hexatic liquid-crystal films
1992
A novel macroscopic stripe texture has been observed in freely suspended films of nonchiral liquid crystal, uniform stripes of alternating molecular orientation form spontaneously at the smectic-C--to--surface-hexatic phase transition and broaden with decreasing temperature. The stripes are identified as splay domains whose formation is attributed to the polar symmetry of the hexatic surface layers. Transverse (director bend) walls, which lead to an additional modulation of the basic one-dimensional pattern, are manifested inside thick circular islands as twelve-armed star defects.
Transmission and phase measurement for polarization eigenvectors in twisted-nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulators
1998
Recently we published theoretical expressions for the eigenvalues and eigenvectors for a twisted-nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulator (LCSLM) as a function of the twist angle and birefringence using the Jones matrix formalism. These polarization eigenvectors are of interest for newer video graphics adapter (VGA) resolution (640 3480 pixels) LCSLMs that are thinner and consequently have a lower birefringence. Although these devices can produce excellent amplitude modulation, they cannot achieve phase-only modulation using linearly polarized light. In these cases, the polarization eigenvectors are required to obtain phase-only modulation. We present experimental measurements for bot…
Dynamical precursor of nematic order in a dense fluid of hard ellipsoids of revolution
2004
We investigate hard ellipsoids of revolution in a parameter regime where no long range nematic order is present but already finite size domains are formed which show orientational order. Domain formation leads to a substantial slowing down of a collective rotational mode which separates well from the usual microscopic frequency regime. A dynamic coupling of this particular mode into all other modes provides a general mechanism which explains an excess peak in spectra of molecular fluids. Using molecular dynamics simulation on up to 4096 particles and on solving the molecular mode coupling equation we investigate dynamic properties of the peak and prove its orientational origin.
Time-multiplexed chromatic-controlled axial diffractive optical elements
2010
Programmable diffractive optical elements DOEs with axial response have many interesting applications, including diffractive lenses, axicons, and optical tweezers. In all these cases, it is essential to properly select the modulation configuration of the spatial light modulator SLM where the DOE is displayed, in order to avoid the undiffracted zero order component that appears on axis and overlaps the desired axial response. However, in general, the chromatic dispersion in liquid crystal SLMs prevents the cancellation of the zero order for a broadband light source, thus limiting the possibilities for polychromatic program- mable axial DOEs. We operate a ferroelectric liquid crystal on silic…
Dielectric and electro-optical studies of a ferroelectric copolysiloxane.
1994
This paper reports an extensive study of the static (spontaneous polarization, ${\mathit{P}}_{\mathit{s}}$, tilt angle \ensuremath{\theta}, and pitch) and dynamic properties of a ferroelectric liquid-crystalline polymer. It is shown that a ferroelectric liquid-crystalline polymer (diluted polysiloxane) exhibits physical behavior similar to that of a low-molar-mass liquid crystal in terms of contrast ratio, pitch of the helix, and relationship between ${\mathit{P}}_{\mathit{s}}$ and \ensuremath{\theta}. The degenerated collective modes for the director rotation are shown to split into two modes at the Sm-A--Sm-${\mathit{C}}^{\mathrm{*}}$ phase transition temperature using dielectric spectros…
Poincaré sphere analysis of a ferroelectric liquid crystal optical modulator: application to optimize the contrast ratio
2008
The Poincare sphere representation is used to analyze the polarization transformation achieved with a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) optical modulator. This device acts as a switchable wave-plate, in which the orientation of the principal axes rotates under the action of an applied bipolar voltage. In the standard operational mode for intensity switching, the rotation angle of the principal axes is �θ = π/4 and the phase shift is φ = π (half-wave-plate). However, for wavelengths different from the design one, the FLC deviates from the half-wave-plate performance and the optical contrast is diminished. We use the Poincare sphere representation to perform a theoretical analysis of the int…
Vortex beam generation and other advanced optics experiments reproduced with a twisted-nematic liquid-crystal display with limited phase modulation
2016
In this work we propose the use of twisted-nematic liquid-crystal spatial light modulators (TN-LC-SLM) as a useful tool for training students in the manipulation of light beams with phase-only masks. In particular, we focus the work on the realization of phase-only gratings and phase-only spiral phases for the generation of vortex beams, beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM). Despite the extensive activity in this field, its experimental implementation for educational purposes is limited because it requires the use of very expensive high-resolution liquid-crystal on silicon (LCOS) SLMs. Here, we show that a low-cost experimental implementation can be done with older TNLC technology.…
Graphical representation of non-absorbing polarization devices
2000
A graphical representation of general non-absorbing polarization devices operating under normal plane-wave incidence is presented. The representation is based on a four-dimensional spherical parametrization of the Jones matrix of this kind of polarization devices. The graphical representation takes the form of a solid cylinder. The projection of the point representing the device over the base of the cylinder gives the corresponding polarization eigenvectors represented in the complex plane, while the height of the point in the cylinder is the phase of its eigenvalue. Some simple examples like wave-plates and rotators are discussed. The representation may represent a useful tool to identify …