Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE
Microwatt optical switching and bistability in dyed nematic liquid crystals
Ashley Lloyd, Chang H. Wang, Brian S. Wherrett
Abstract
The performance of optically bistable liquid crystal interference filters with extra-cavity metallic absorbers is contrasted with designs using intra-cavity dyes with which switching levels at 4 pW are recorded. The use of these devices in parallel processing applications is also considered, with the optical implementation of a "flip-flop" and results of a 15 x 15 element array switching presented.