We have developed two approaches for controlling the pretilt angles of liquid crystal molecules by using conventional
polyimide (PI) alignment materials either doping homogeneous PIs with Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsequioxanes (POSS)
nanoparticles or treating homeotropic PIs with ultraviolet light. These techniques are very simple and are compatible
with current methods familiar in the LCD industry. The characteristics of modified PI alignment films and their
applications for photonic devices are demonstrated in this paper.
We have studied experimentally the electro-optics properties of the slab waveguide induced by the electric poling. The thin film waveguide is made by a commercial polymer PA-11 and was poled by applying voltage between the botttom electrode and the top electrode. The poling voltage dominates the magnitude of E-O effect. In this work, I-V curves and electro-optic characteristics of the PA-11 films were in-situ measured during poling. In order to evaluate the molecular dipole alignment under the poling field, absorption spectra of this film was observed by the FTIR. Moreover, the static field analysis of the poling electrodes is performed to determine the optimum electrode geometry. Numerical evidence demonstrated that the distribution of poling field is function of electrode spacing and width. Thus these numerical results should be useful to establish a novel guideline for designing the poling electrode of poled polymer waveguide devices.
A thin film waveguide of novel polymer Nylon 11 was fabricated and characterized. The active polymer waveguide film was formed by spin coating and poled by applying an electric field. The J-E and D-E curves with hysteresis characteristics of the Nylon 11 film was measured during poling, as well as the absorption spectrum of this waveguide film was observed by the FTIR before and after completing the poling. In addition, we have investigated the influence of the waveguide position and electrode structure on the optic axis distribution in the poled polymer film. The numerical results are given to establish a useful guideline for designing the poled polymer waveguide devices.
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