Liquid crystal tunable claddings for polymer integrated optical waveguides

Optical waveguides in photonic integrated circuits are traditionally passive elements merely carrying optical signals from one point to another. These elements could contribute to the integrated circuit functionality if they were modulated either by variations of the core optical properties, or by using tunable claddings. In this work, the use of liquid crystals as electro-optically active claddings for driving integrated waveguides has been explored. Tunable waveguides have been modeled and fabricated using polymers. Optical functions such as variable coupling and optical switching have been demonstrated.