Liquid crystal waveguide having refractive shapes for dynamically controlling light
First Claim
1. A waveguide for controllably refracting a light beam, comprising:
- a core for guiding the light beam through the waveguide;
at least one cladding having a liquid crystal material therein; and
at least one electrode for receiving at least one voltage;
wherein the light beam is refracted at an interface by an amount that is controlled by the voltage.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Liquid crystal waveguides for dynamically controlling the refraction of light. Generally, liquid crystal materials may be disposed within a waveguide in a cladding proximate or adjacent to a core layer of the waveguide. In one example, portions of the liquid crystal material can be induced to form refractive or lens shapes in the cladding that interact with a portion (e.g. evanescent) of light in the waveguide so as to permit electronic control of the refraction/bending, focusing, or defocusing of light as it travels through the waveguide. In one example, a waveguide may be formed using one or more patterned or shaped electrodes that induce formation of such refractive or lens shapes of liquid crystal material, or alternatively, an alignment layer may have one or more regions that define such refractive or lens shapes to induce formation of refractive or lens shapes of the liquid crystal material. In another example, such refractive or lens shapes of liquid crystal material may be formed by patterning or shaping a cladding to define a region or cavity to contain liquid crystal material in which the liquid crystal materials may interact with the evanescent light.
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Citations
114 Claims
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1. A waveguide for controllably refracting a light beam, comprising:
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a core for guiding the light beam through the waveguide;
at least one cladding having a liquid crystal material therein; and
at least one electrode for receiving at least one voltage;
wherein the light beam is refracted at an interface by an amount that is controlled by the voltage. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A waveguide, comprising:
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a core for guiding a light beam;
at least one cladding having a liquid crystal material within at least a portion of said cladding wherein at least a portion of the liquid crystal material forms one or more refractive shapes having an index of refraction; and
at least one electrode;
wherein as a voltage is applied to said electrode, the index of refraction of the one or more refractive shapes is altered to controllably refract the light beam as it travels through the waveguide. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
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52. A waveguide for steering a light beam, comprising:
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a core for guiding the light beam through the waveguide;
at least one cladding having a liquid crystal material disposed therein, said cladding having a first region characterized by a first index of refraction and a second region characterized by a second index of refraction; and
at least one electrode;
wherein at least the second index of refraction is controlled by a voltage applied to the electrode. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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60. A waveguide for refracting a light beam, comprising:
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a core;
at least one cladding having a liquid crystal material disposed therein, said cladding having at least a first region that includes at least a portion of the liquid crystal material having a first orientation; and
at least one electrode;
wherein the first orientation of the first portion of the liquid crystal material in the at least first region selectively changes from a first state to a second state based on a voltage applied to said electrode. - View Dependent Claims (61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67)
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68. A method for dynamically controlling refraction of light through a waveguide having a core and at least one cladding, comprising:
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providing a liquid crystal material within said at least one cladding;
providing for forming at least one refractive shape from said liquid crystal material in said at least one cladding; and
providing for passing an evanescent portion of said light through said at least one refractive shape, thereby refracting the light. - View Dependent Claims (69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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82. A method for dynamically controlling refraction of light through a waveguide having a core and at least one cladding, comprising:
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providing a liquid crystal material disposed within said at least one cladding;
providing at least one electrode; and
providing for applying a voltage to said electrode to refract the light in the waveguide. - View Dependent Claims (83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95)
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96. A method for controlling refraction of a light beam through a waveguide having a core and at least one cladding, comprising:
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providing a liquid crystal material within said at least one cladding;
providing for forming at least one refractive shape from said liquid crystal material in said at least one cladding; and
providing at least one alignment layer adjacent the core, said alignment layer inducing a substantially uniform arrangement of the liquid crystal material of the at least one refractive shape; and
providing for passing the light beam through the waveguide, wherein an evanescent portion of the light beam interacts with the at least one refractive shape having the substantially uniform arrangement of the liquid crystal material, thereby reducing attenuation of the light beam as it travels through the waveguide. - View Dependent Claims (97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109)
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110. A waveguide, comprising:
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a core for guiding a light beam through the waveguide;
means for controllably refracting the light beam as it travels through the waveguide. - View Dependent Claims (111, 112, 113, 114)
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Specification