Electrooptical wide-angle beam deflector based on fringing-field-induced refractive inhomogeneity in a liquid crystal layer

A controllable, refractive, electrooptical liquid crystal (LC) beam deflector has been studied both theoretically and experimentally. The principle of operation of the deflector is based on the generation of a high gradient of refractive index in a thick LC layer by the fringing field between two la...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Apter, B., Bahat-Treidel, E., Efron, U.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Diffraction
Electrodes
Glass
Laser beams
Liquid crystal devices
Liquid crystals
Optical refraction
Polarization
Refractive index
Voltage
Online Access:Request full text
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Summary:A controllable, refractive, electrooptical liquid crystal (LC) beam deflector has been studied both theoretically and experimentally. The principle of operation of the deflector is based on the generation of a high gradient of refractive index in a thick LC layer by the fringing field between two lateral electrodes in a simple 3-electrode LC cell. A Gaussian laser beam, focused into the narrow region at the electrode gap was effectively deflected by the refractive index gradient. Large deflection angles of /spl sim/15/spl deg/ as well as a high deflection efficiency of 98% were demonstrated experimentally backed by a theoretical analysis.
DOI:10.1109/EEEI.2004.1361135