Switchable photonic components based on zenithal-bistable nematic liquid crystal gratings

Electro-optically switchable photonic components based on zenithal bistable liquid-crystal gratings are designed and theoretically investigated. By properly selecting the material and geometrical parameters, we demonstrate that such gratings can operate as switchable beam splitters, beam steerers, quarterwave plates, and narrowband guided-mode resonant filters. The switching dynamics of the proposed components are also investigated by employing a tensorial formulation for the liquidcrystal orientation problem, which is coupled with the lightwave propagation studies in a multiphysics environment based on the finite-element method.