JALA Podcast: A Conversation with the Author of Holographically Formed, Acoustically Switchable Gratings Based on Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystals

Summary: Experiments with holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) gratings driven by surface acoustic waves (SAWs) exhibit switchable properties: the diffraction of the H-PDLC grating decreases and the transmission increases. This is due to the acoustic streaming-induced realignment of liquid crystals as well as absorption-resulted thermal diffusion. Such SAW-driven H-PDLC gratings are potentially useful in many photonic applications.