Plasma Physics by Lasers and Applications 2019

Because of their peculiar nonlinear electro-optic properties, liquid crystals are excellent materials for the production of low-cost photonic components, like for example optical filters and switches and integrated devices for optical waveguides. In this work, we show analitically how fingers in frustrated chiral nematic liquid crystals can be exploited in waveguiding, since they are able to select specific polarization components. Moreover, we show how an external uniform electric field and/or the chiral dopant concentration can be used to switch between different textures affecting the propagation through the waveguide. As usual, for rectangular waveguides, the thickness of the layer in which the liquid crystal is confined is used to tune the number of modes propagating inside of it.