Liquid crystal waveguide technologies for a new generation of low-power photonic integrated circuits

In this paper we show two approaches to fabricate photonic channels on different substrate technology platforms, in particular silicon and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), for flexible photonic integrated circuits. The electro-optic effect and nonlinear optical properties of liquid crystals (LC) allow the realization of low cost and low energy consumption optoelectronic devices operating at both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. High extinction ratio and large tuning range guided wave devices will be presented to be used for both optofluidic and datacom applications, in which both low realization costs and low power consumption are key features. In particular we will show our recent results on polarization independent light propagation in waveguides whose core consists of LC infiltrated in PDMS channels (LC:PDMS waveguides) fully compatible with optofluidic and lab-on-chip microsystems.