Optical control of polarized terahertz waves using dye-doped nematic liquid crystals

Autor: Tomoyuki Sasaki, Hiroki Okuyama, Moritsugu Sakamoto, Kohei Noda, Nobuhiro Kawatsuki, Hiroshi Ono
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: AIP Advances, Vol 8, Iss 11, Pp 115326-115326-8 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2158-3226
DOI: 10.1063/1.5041294
Popis: We propose an optically tunable terahertz (THz) polarization converter based on use of a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal (LC). The dye-doped LC exhibits a photothermally-induced nematic-isotropic phase transition under irradiation by a laser beam with a wavelength that lies within the absorption band of the dye. We investigate the transmission spectra and the polarization-conversion properties of the dye-doped LC cell with twisted alignment using THz time-domain spectroscopy. The polarization state of a THz wave transmitted through the proposed dye-doped LC cell can be controlled using the laser beam irradiation based on the photothermal effect. The experimental results also demonstrate that optical control of this dye-doped LC cell offers an advantage in terms of response speed when compared with voltage-based control of LC cells via their electrodes. The dye-doped LC proposed in this study presents the possibility that a variety of LC-based THz elements with optical tunability may be realized.
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