| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/M21164/01 |
| Title: |
HIGH SWITCHING ANGLE FLC COMPOUNDS FOR OPTICAL PROCESSING APPLICATIONS |
| Principal Investigator: |
Crossland, Professor WA |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Cambridge |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 February 1999 |
Ends: |
31 July 2002 |
Value (£): |
183,706
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| Communications |
Electronics |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The aim of this project is to provide (for the first time) practical chiral smectic liquid crystal materials for devices employing phase modulation. The manipulation of optical wavefronts by means of reconfigurable phase holograms promises to revolutionise several technically and commercially important areas of optics and information technology including fibre optic switching, image processing, interconnects in large electronic systems (e.g. telecommunications switches and super computers) and adaptive optics in general, e.g. for aberration correction. For these reasons, high efficiency SLM technologies are vital. We aim to exploit the potentially attractive performance of the high switching angle organosiloxanes ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures recently synthesised at Southampton University. These new compounds display high switching angles of 90 degrees and are capable of switching between bistable states of the order of 100ms at voltages of the order of 30V. The high switching angle means that a spatial light modulator can operate without polarisers and will be lossless at a given wavelength. The further enhancement of the liquid crystal dynamics by utilising antifferroelecric phases will further improve the device as it can then be used as a tristable modulator.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.cam.ac.uk |