An active carbon-nanotube polarizer-embedded electrode and liquid-crystal alignment

We report a method for constructing an active optical polarizer using a polymer embedded aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) sheet that is flexible, bendable, transparent, conductive, and also serves to anchor liquid-crystal (LC) molecules.

Surface Modification of Nanocrystalline Cellulose toward a Tunable Optical Polarizer

ABSTRACTNanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) solid films obtained from evaporated aqueous heterogeneous mixtures retain the self-assembled chiral nematic order formed in the suspension. These semi-translucent films are iridescent and reflect or transmit circularly polarized visible light (400-700nm) due to the chiral properties of the self-assembled nanostructure. This effect occurs at different wavelengths depending on the pitch of the helical structure. In this paper, NCC films have been fabricated from different recipes to produce various helix pitches. The corresponding red-shift in the optical wavelength has been obtained by means of Spectrophotometry measurements. Preliminary experiments have been performed to investigate optical polarization effects as function of angles of incidence using ellipsometry. Finally, laser micromachining results on NCC films may suggest feasibility for integration as tunable light polarizer components.

Band Structure Engineering in 2D Photonic Crystal Waveguide with Rhombic Cross-Section Elements

Two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D PhC) waveguides with square lattice composed of dielectric rhombic cross-section elements in air background, by using plane wave expansion (PWE) method, are investigated. In order to study the change of photonic band gap (PBG) by changing of elongation of elements, the band structure of the used structure is plotted. We observe that the size of the PBG changes by variation of elongation of elements, but there is no any change in the magnitude of defect modes. However, the used structure does not have any TE defect modes but it has TM defect mode for any angle of elongation. So, the used structure can be used as optical polarizer.