Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals in Microcapillaries: Observation of Different Electro-optic Switching Mechanisms

Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) can provide fast electro-optic switching effects in photonic crystal fibers, which are promising for developing integrated optical modulators to be used for optical telecommunication. The present study describes experiments on capillaries filled with FLCs, which pave the way toward application of FLCs in state-of-the-art solid core microstructured optical fibers. A method to achieve uniform alignment of the helix axis and the appearance of two different switching modes with switching times in the submillisecond range are found. An additional slow relaxation that was reported recently can be attributed to space charge fields, which may appear due to the migration of ions.