Nematic liquid crystals exhibit a fast optical response when the applied electric field modifies the degree of order but does not change the direction of molecular orientation. The effect requires a relatively high electric field, on the order of 10^8 V/m for a field induced birefringence change of 0.01. To address this detrimental issue, this work explores electrically induced modification of the order parameter in a material with a giant dielectric anisotropy of +200. A relatively weak field 3X10^7 V/m causes a significant change of birefringence, by about 0.04. Both switching on and off times are ~10 microseconds. The effect is called a microsecond electrically modified order parameter (MEMOP) and can be used in electro-optical devices, such as fast electro-optic shutters, phase modulators, and beam-steerers that require microsecond response times.
@article{arxiv.1907.10227,
title = {Microsecond electro-optic switching of nematic liquid crystals with giant dielectric anisotropy},
author = {Bing-Xiang Li and Greta Babakhanova and Rui-Lin Xiao and Volodymyr Borshch and Simon Siemianowski and Sergij V. Shiyanovskii and Oleg D. Lavrentovich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.10227},
year = {2019}
}