TERAHERTZ RADIATION MODULATOR Russian patent published in 2020 - IPC G02F1/13 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a terahertz range radiation modulator consisting of N piled liquid crystal (LC) cells, each of which is made up of two substrates and two sections of porous membranes separated by spacers and sealing gaskets along cell perimeter, two pairs of electrodes arranged on two opposite edges of cell, note here that inner surfaces of substrates are machined to give LC of homogeneous orientation. Each LC cell is equipped with a separating plate, which is installed in the central part of the cell, is tightly connected to sections of porous membranes and forms two flat channels in the cell. Surfaces of said separating plate, along with inner surfaces of substrates, are processed to create homeotropic orientation LC in cell channels, electrodes are installed on inner surfaces of substrates in areas corresponding to arrangement of sections of porous membranes, cell channels filled with a liquid crystal are in-series connected to each other and edge sections of porous membranes into a closed circuit, and total number of cells in foot N is selected based on the condition N=λ_max/(4⋅Δn⋅d), where λ_max – upper limit of preset range of wavelengths, Δn – anisotropy of refraction index of liquid crystal, d – thickness of layer LC in each of two channels of cell.

EFFECT: invention provides: possibility of terahertz range radiation modulation relatively to small control voltages, sufficiently high homogeneity of electrocontrolled LC element in plane perpendicular to terahertz radiation propagation direction, which reduces spatial distortions of terahertz wave, wide choice for manufacturing of limiting LC substrates of polymer materials with low losses in area of terahertz frequency range.

3 cl, 1 dwg