Ultrafast All-Optical Switching with Transparent and Absorptive Nematic Liquid Crystals-Implications in Tunable Metamaterials

摘要

We present a critical review of the nonlinear optical responses of nematic liquid crystals associated with short pulsed laser induced thermal,-density and order parameter fluctuations. Experimental studies conducted with absorbing as well as transparent nematic liquid crystals have demonstrated that all-optical one-way switching of nanoseconds pulsed laser at 750 nm can be realized at sub-microseconds to nanoseconds speed. Similar switching performances have also been observed with lasers at other visible-infrared regime, confirming the broadband applicability of the underlying nonlinear optical processes.