Electrically Tunable Defect-Mode Wavelengths in a Liquid-Crystal-in-Cavity Hybrid Structure in the Near-Infrared Range

This work proposes a novel approach to developing a core component for a near-infrared (NIR) spectrometer with wavelength tunability, which is based on a liquid crystal (LC)-in-cavity structure as a hybrid photonic crystal (PC). By electrically altering the tilt angle of the LC molecules under applied voltage, the proposed PC/LC photonic structure consisting of an LC layer sandwiched between two multilayer films generates transmitted photons at specific wavelengths as defect modes within the photonic bandgap (PBG). The relationship between the number of defect-mode peaks and the cell thickness is investigated using a simulated approach based on the 4 × 4 Berreman numerical method. Furthermore, the defect-mode wavelength shifts driven by various applied voltages are studied experimentally. To minimize the power consumption of the optical module for spectrometric application, cells of different thicknesses are explored for the wavelength-tunability performance of the defect modes scanning through the entire free spectral ranges to the wavelengths of their next higher orders at null voltage. A 7.9 μm thick PC/LC cell is verified to attain the low operating voltage of merely 2.5 V(rms) required to successfully cover the entire NIR spectral range between 1250 and 1650 nm. The proposed PBG structure is thus an excellent candidate for application in monochromator or spectrometer development.