Integrated Electro-Optic Switches Based on Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Waveguides

Two integrated electro-optic switches based on smectic C* ferroelectric liquid crystal planar waveguides oriented in the bookshelf geometry have been designed and realized. The electro-optical behavior and the response time of both devices have been studied for different configurations for both TE and TM polarization. Our main aim was to demonstrate the feasibility of an integrated electro-optical device based on a FLC waveguide, and our experimental results provide a number of interesting indications about device optimization and practical applications.