All-optical switching of diffraction gratings infiltrated with dye-doped liquid crystals

摘要

We report the realization and the characterization of an all-optical switching device based on a transmission grating recorded in a polymeric substrate infiltrated with a methyl red-doped liquid crystal. The properties of this highly nonlinear mixture are exploited to modulate the diffraction of the grating by a pump beam when a static electric field is applied. The behavior of the device is in agreement with the existing model for methyl red-doped liquid crystals