Micro-sized tunable liquid crystal optical filters

TL;DR

This paper introduces Liquid Crystal Arrayed Microcavities (LCAM), a compact, tunable, ultra-narrow optical filter technology suitable for various high-resolution applications.

Contribution

It presents the design and initial performance of LCAM, a novel microcavity-based liquid crystal filter with pico-liter volume cavities and tunable spectral properties.

Findings

Achieved ~0.1 nm FWHM spectral resolution

Demonstrated compact and robust filter design

Potential applications in biomedical and environmental sensing

Abstract

Liquid Crystal Arrayed Microcavities (LCAM) is a new technology for ultra-narrow optical filtering (FWHM ~ 0.1 nm) that uses pico-liter volume Fabry-Perot type optical cavities filled with liquid crystal for tuning. LCAMs are sub-nm spectral resolution filters, which utilize well-established laser writing, thin film deposition, and wafer manufacturing techniques. These filters are compact, robust, and inexpensive. Compact, high-resolution optical filters have applications including biomedical imaging, chemical detection, and environmental monitoring. Here we describe the LCAM design and initial performance metrics.