HIGHLY EFFICIENT PHOTOREFRACTIVE POLYMER-DISPERSED LIQUID-CRYSTALS

We report on high-resolution photorefractive polymer-dispersed liquid crystals that lead to high diffraction efficiency at lower applied fie lds compared with photorefractive polymers. The diffraction efficiency reaches 100% internally for 105-mu m-thick samples at a field of 8 V/ mu m. Net. optical gain and diffraction efficiencies of 56% are demons trated in 53-mu m-thick devices. Subsecond response times have also be en obtained using polymeric matrices with good transport properties. ( C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)04543-4].