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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M21164/01
Title: HIGH SWITCHING ANGLE FLC COMPOUNDS FOR OPTICAL PROCESSING APPLICATIONS
Principal Investigator: Crossland, Professor WA
Other Investigators:
Wilkinson, Professor T
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Thomas Swan
Department: Engineering
Organisation: University of Cambridge
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 February 1999 Ends: 31 July 2002 Value (£): 183,706
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Materials Processing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Communications Electronics
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
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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Organisation Website: http://www.cam.ac.uk