Beam deflector using double-refraction in ferroelectric liquid crystal waveguides

Confined SmC* liquid crystals layers have particularly advantageous propert ies which can be used to produce fast light modulators, with various applic ations in optical signal processing and optical communication systems. Alth ough usually used in a spatial configuration (e.g. spatial light modulators ), other configurations use FLC in waveguide applications. The advantageous properties of FLC, allow it however to be used as the guiding core of wave guides. In this context, we present the design, fabrication and experimenta l characterization of an optical deflector based on the double-refraction e ffect in a FLC waveguide.