Guiding Light with Programmable Wall Defects

Abstract

AbstractExternal‐field controllable light‐guiding structures are critical in the field of optical circuits and optical integration, and many well‐designed solid‐state waveguides have good performance but are weakly controllable. Although there have been attempts at liquid light guiding, liquid‐filled waveguides cannot completely break the constraints of the solid structure, and in liquid crystal (LC), the smaller tuning angle of the optical soliton limits its further application. So designing a soft tunable light‐guiding structure becomes an urgent but challenging task. In this work, a novel electrically switchable light‐guiding structure with LC programmable wall defect is designed and verified. Wide‐angle recyclable switching of light guiding under an electric field and optical erasure and rewriting of the structure are realized, unleashing the potential of soft‐matter defect structures, and paving the way for soft optical devices and optoelectronic integration.