Liquid Crystal Based Inverted Rib Waveguide

Abstract

We report tunable liquid–crystal-core inverted rib waveguides, in which the optical guidance can be electrically tuned between the single-mode and multi-mode. The modal characteristics of the LC based rib structure in presence and absence of externally applied electric field have been simulated by using the finite difference mode (FDM) method. The structure has also been fabricated on fused silica glass substrate. We show the conversion of fundamental mode profile into a multi-mode profile at 1550 nm wavelength by the application of electric field. The proposed liquid crystal based waveguide has the advantages of on-chip low-cost fabrication. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.