Fully-chromophoric ferroelectric nematics for electronic electro-optics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel design of fully-chromophoric ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals that enable efficient second-order nonlinear optical phase modulation, advancing chip-scale electro-optic technologies.

Contribution

It presents a new molecular design strategy for ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals that are fully chromophoric and suitable for high-efficiency electro-optic applications.

Findings

Achieved ferroelectric nematic phase with fully chromophoric molecules.

Demonstrated high electro-optic phase modulation efficiency.

Enabled second-order nonlinear optical response in a fluid medium.

Abstract

Electronic electro-optic (EEO) phase modulation is a key emerging technology for the chip-scale inter-conversion of signals between the electronic and photonic domains. The recent discovery of the ferroelectric nematic ($N_F$) liquid crystal phase, a three dimensional fluid of rod-shaped organic molecules having near-perfect equilibrium polar molecular orientational order, offers attractive opportunities for the creation of second-order nonlinear optical materials for EEO. Here we propose and realize a design motif for $N_F$ EEO molecules in which few-nanometer-long molecular rods are functionalized both for electro-static end-to-end association, facilitating $N_F$ phase formation, and for chromophoric optical nonlinearity, enabling high EEO efficiency, a combination enabling an active second-order nonlinear EEO medium that is 100% chromophoric.