Fabrication Of Liquid Crystalline Periodic Waveguiding Structures By Means Of The Photo-Polymerization Process

Photonic structures in the form of waveguide channels, with periodic spatial changes in the refractive index of the wavelength scale, are typically manufactured, based on a well-developed silica and gallium arsenide technology [1] as well as high-precision lithography. The main disadvantage related to their practical application is that their optical properties cannot be altered after fabrication. Due to this fact, liquid crystalline periodic waveguiding structures, manufactured by a process of photo-polymerization, have been proposed in this work. Importantly, the propagational characteristic of such photonic structures can be easily adjusted during fabrication, and then also dynamically tuned, e.g. by the application of external voltage, as presented in the present communication.