Shanghai Optoelectronics has made progress in the development of high damage threshold liquid crystal devices

【 Instrument R&D 】Institute of High Power Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has made progress in the development of high damage threshold liquid crystal devices. Researchers have used gallium nitride instead of indium tin oxide (ITO) as a conductive film to make liquid crystals The optical switch, on the basis of ensuring its switching performance, raises the damage threshold of the liquid crystal device to be higher than 1J/cm2. Related results were published in Optics Letters.

Liquid crystal optical devices, especially liquid crystal spatial light modulators, as an optical device that can dynamically control the amplitude, phase, and polarization state of the light field in real time, have been used in inertial confinement fusion large laser devices, laser processing, laser communication, etc. . Especially in the fields of laser processing and laser communication, as the laser power increases, there is an urgent need for high damage threshold characteristics of the device. The current laser damage of indium tin oxide (ITO) conductive materials in devices limits the further widespread application of such devices.

In response to the above problems, the researchers noticed that while gallium nitride material has the potential to become a transparent conductive film material, its laser damage threshold is higher than that of ITO material, and by using gallium nitride material instead of ITO in the transparent conductive layer of the liquid crystal optical switch In part, while ensuring its switching performance, it has successfully raised the laser damage threshold of liquid crystal optical switches. The results show that gallium nitride has great potential as a conductive film material for liquid crystal optical devices, especially in the future, it has broad application prospects in liquid crystal spatial light modulators.