Author(s): Xu, H (Xu, Hao); Ding, BF (Ding, Baofu); Xu, YA (Xu, Youan); Huang, ZY (Huang, Ziyang); Wei, DH (Wei, Dahai); Chen, SH (Chen, Shaohua); Lan, TS (Lan, Tianshu); Pan, YK (Pan, Yikun); Cheng, HM (Cheng, Hui-Ming); Liu, BL (Liu, Bilu)

Source: NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY DOI: 10.1038/s41565-022-01186-1 Early Access Date: AUG 2022

Abstract: A 2D material based liquid-crystal shows an extremely large optical anisotropy factor in the deep ultraviolet region, showing magnetically tunable birefringence.

Birefringence is a fundamental optical property that can induce phase retardation of polarized light. Tuning the birefringence of liquid crystals is a core technology for light manipulation in current applications in the visible and infrared spectral regions. Due to the strong absorption or instability of conventional liquid crystals in deep-ultraviolet light, tunable birefringence remains elusive in this region, notwithstanding its significance in diverse applications. Here we show a stable and birefringence-tunable deep-ultraviolet modulator based on two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride. It has an extremely large optical anisotropy factor of 6.5 x 10(-12) C-2 J(-1) m(-1) that gives rise to a specific magneto-optical Cotton-Mouton coefficient of 8.0 x 10(6) T-2 m(-1), which is about five orders of magnitude higher than other potential deep-ultraviolet-transparent media. The large coefficient, high stability (retention rate of 99.7% after 270 cycles) and wide bandgap of boron nitride collectively enable the fabrication of stable deep-ultraviolet modulators with magnetically tunable birefringence.

Accession Number: WOS:000839552800002

PubMed ID: 35953540

Author Identifiers:

Author        Web of Science ResearcherID        ORCID Number

Chen, Shaohua                  0000-0002-0076-2561

Ding, Baofu                  0000-0001-6646-7285

Cheng, Hui-Ming                  0000-0002-5387-4241

ISSN: 1748-3387

eISSN: 1748-3395

Full Text: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-022-01186-1