Possibility of Use of Liquid Crystals as Optical Waveguide Material for 1.3 µm and 1.55 µm Bands

This letter describes an experimental investigation on the transmission characteristics of a liquid crystal optical waveguide in the 0.7 µm–1.7 µm spectral range. The scattering loss decreases from 10 dB/cm to about 2 dB/cm as the wavelength is increased from 0.7 µm to more than 1.3 µm. This indicates the potential use of liquid crystals as an active waveguide material for integrated optics operating at 1.3 µm and 1.55 µm, at which wavelengths the liquid crystals also have low absorption loss windows.