Tunable Diffraction Effects From Hybrid Liquid Crystal And Carbon Nanotube Based Devices

Abstract

Hybrid carbon nanotube (CNT) and liquid crystal (LC) devices provide the ability to electrically control the far-field diffraction pattern and device efficiency. By varying the electric field voltage levels it is possible to cause the nanotubes to affect the liquid crystal predominantly (low voltage), the indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes predominantly (high voltage), or varying combinations in between. This allows the creation of a mutli-dimensional diffraction grating that can be useful for integral imaging, 3D microscopy, tunable gratings, and optical switching.