1. Acousto-optic response of nematic liquid crystals.
- Author
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Greanya, V. A., Spector, M. S., Selinger, J. V., Weslowski, B. T., and Shashidhar, R.
- Subjects
ACOUSTIC surface waves ,CRYSTALS ,OPTOELECTRONICS - Abstract
The dependence of the acousto-optic response of two nematic liquid crystals on several possible future device parameters is investigated. Several paths for possible optimization are identified. A large enhancement of the acousto-optic response is obtained through optimization of the incident angle of the acoustic wave. The power required for a given cell to reach the maximum optical intensity is also reduced by adjusting the optical angle. This reduction comes at the expense of higher zero-field intensity, and therefore lowers the overall contrast. Finally, the acousto-optic response shows a significant dependence on liquid crystal layer thickness, scaling with the theoretically predicted fifth power of the cell thickness. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2003
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