Fast-Response Liquid Crystal for Spatial Light Modulator and LiDAR Applications

• Published in: Crystals (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 2; p. 93
• Main Authors: Zou, Junyu, Yang, Qian, Hsiang, En-Lin, Ooishi, Haruki, Yang, Zhuo, Yoshidaya, Kifumi, Wu, Shin-Tson
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.02.2021
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Birefringence; Head-up displays; Lasers; LCDs; Lidar; Light; Liquid crystal displays; Liquid crystals; liquid-crystal-on-silicon; Nematic crystals; Photodegradation; photostability; Physical properties; Response time; spatial light modulator; Spatial light modulators; Viscoelasticity
• ISSN: 2073-4352; 2073-4352
• DOI: 10.3390/cryst11020093

We report a new nematic mixture for liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulator (SLM) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) applications. The mixture exhibits a relatively high birefringence (Δn), moderate dielectric anisotropy (Δɛ), low viscosity, and reasonably good photostability. To achieve 2π phase change at 5 V, the response time (on + off) is 2.5 ms at 40 °C with λ = 633 nm, and 5.9 ms with λ = 905 nm. After exposure by a blue laser (λ = 465 nm) with a total dosage up to 20 MJ/cm2, this mixture shows no sign of photodegradation. Widespread applications of this material for high brightness SLMs, LiDAR, near-eye displays, and head-up displays are foreseeable.