Terahertz in-plane and terahertz out-of-plane switching liquid crystal devices
US9298050B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignees
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 30, 2012 |
| Grant date | Mar 29, 2016 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 18, 2034 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG02F2203/50
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A liquid crystal cell structure comprising transparent terahertz (THz) windows, alignment layers, protective layers, in-plane electrodes, out-of-plane electrodes, and a liquid crystal (LC) layer. The in-plane electrodes generate in-plane electric fields that are parallel to the liquid crystal layer and the out-of-plane electrodes generate out-of-plane electric fields that are perpendicular to the liquid crystal layer. The in-plane and out-of-plane electrodes have wire-grid patterns to increase THz wave transmission efficiency. The wire-grid patterned electrodes are transparent to THz waves that have parallel polarization compared to a grating vector of the wire grid pattern and are opaque to THz waves of perpendicular polarization. These two electrodes are controlled independently to tune the optical properties of the LC and improve the operating speed of THz LC devices.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.