Invited Paper

Optodielectrophoretic hologram recording in hybrid liquid crystals

devices
A. Fuentes Garciaa, M.C. Granados Luyandoa, M.H. Vazquez Nicolasb, Pere Roca i Cabarrocasc J.C. RamirezSan-Juana, and R. Ramos Garciaa
a
National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, Optics Department. Apartado Postal 51 y 216,
Puebla Pue, 72000 Mexico
b
Facultad de Fsica e Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrn s/n, Zona
Universitaria Xalapa, Veracruz, MXICO 91000
c
L'cole Polytechnique, PICM - Physique des Interfaces Batiment 406 Ecole Polytechnique 91128 Palaiseau
Cedex FRANCE 91128 Palaiseau, France

ABSTRACT
Optodielectrophoresis has been shown to be an interesting tool for massive manipulation of microparticles using external
electric fields. Here, no electrode fabrication is need it since they are created by the light distribution incident onto a
photoconducting material. We propose the use of this device for the recording of dynamic holograms in hydrogenated
amorphous silicon (a:Si-H)-liquid crystals hybrid devices. The device consists of 5CB liquid crystal sandwiched between
a photoconductive a:Si-H substrate and an ITO covered glass-plate. Diffraction efficiency of 3.3% is obtained when
holograms are recorded with a low power He-Ne laser.
Keywords: Liquid crystals, dielectrophoresis, amorphous silicon, and holograms

1. INTRODUCTION
Optodielectrophoresis is a novel dielectrophoresis technique were virtual electrodes are created by illumination of
photoconducting electrodes, dispensing the need of fabricating real electrodes. Optodielectrophoresis was proposed in
2005 by the group of Prof. Gu at Berkeley University as a technique intended for massive manipulation of
microparticles. It was shown that up to 15000 particles could be manipulated simultaneous with a diode light source of
only a couple of milliwatt power1. The device consists of thin layer of water containing the microparticles sandwiched
between a photoconductive amorphous silicon (a:Si-H) substrate and an ITO covered glass-plate2. An AC electric field is
applied between the electrodes. Under dark conditions, the resistivity of a:Si-H is much larger than the waters
resistivity, so the voltage drops mainly on the a:Si-H, however, under illumination the situation reverse and the voltage
drops on the water layer. Thus, an electric field spatial modulation inside the water is controlled by illumination. It was
also shown that the spatial distribution of electric field inside the water is complicated but for relatively thick layers (>20
m) it behaves as an evanescent field2.
Hybrid devices based on liquid crystals and inorganic photoconductors are subject of intensive research since they
combine the large optical anisotropy of liquid crystals and photoinduced space-charge fields in order to enhance the
energy exchange in beam coupling experiments3-5. Photorefractive crystals have been the choice of photoconductor
material in hybrid devices4,5 because high space-charge field can be activated with low power lasers, which combined
with the large refractive index anisotropy of liquid crystals, produce extremely large beam coupling gain coefficients5.
However, the cost of photorefractive crystals and lack of reproducibility on its properties has hindered its widespread
use. On the contrary, a:Si-H is a widely used material in the solar cell and display industries with well known electrical
and optical properties6,7. In addition, the high density of defect states of a:Si-H results in highly absorbent material which
combined with its short ambipolar diffusion length8 (~100nm) results in a good photoconductive material for patterning
high resolution virtual electrodes. Therefore a:Si-H seems to be a viable option to replace photorefractive crystals.
In this work, we show that the electric field obtained by optodielectrophoresis can be effectively used to reorient liquid
crystals. The device consist of a 20 m layer of nematic 5CB liquid crystal sandwiched between a photoconductive
amorphous silicon (a:Si-H) substrate and an ITO covered glass-plate. An AC electric field is applied between the

Liquid Crystals XVI, edited by Iam Choon Khoo, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8475
84750X 2012 SPIE CCC code: 0277-786X/12/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.930756

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electrodes and illumination provides the spatial modulation of the photoconductive, and therefore, the spatial distribution
of the electrodes. We show that a diffraction efficiency of 3.3% is obtained with a 1.5 mW He-Ne laser.

2. OPTODIELECTROPHORESIS
The dielectrophoretic force (DEF) on a dielectric particles immersed in an inhomogenous electric field is giving by9:
<Fdep(t)> = 2r3mRe[K*()] E2
(1)

*p m*

K * ( ) *
, *p p i p , m* m i m
*
p 2 m

(2)

Where <Fdep(t)> represents a temporal average of the dielectrophoretic force F(t) and E is the electric field on a particle
of radius r. p,m and p,m are the permitivity and conductivity of the particle and the media, respectively, is the
frequency of applied field and K*( ) is the Clausius-Mossotti factor. Note that the DEF depend on the spatial gradients
of the electric field. Contrary to optical tweezers, the same particle may be attracted (positive DEF) or repelled from the
highest gradient electric field as the Clausius-Mossotti factor switch sign as the frequency changes. The AC electric field
is applied between custom-designed electrodes, usually fabricated with photolithographic techniques, which are
cumbersome and an expensive fabrication process. As pointed out before, in dielectrophoresis the spatial light
distribution creates virtual electrodes almost in real time1.
In this work, we replace the colloidal solution with undoped 5CB nematic liquid crystal. By doing so, we intend to use
the electric field produced on a:Si-H to reorient the liquid crystal molecules. The determination of the forces exerted on
the liquid crystal molecules is not important for our purposes, and thus, only the torque exerted by the electric field
inside the liquid crystal will be studied. The electric torque E exerted on the liquid crystals is given by10

E = (n.E)(nxE)

(3)

where is the dielectric anisotropy of the liquid crystal, n is the director axis and E is obtained from Eq. (1). As shown
in Ref. 2, the spatial distribution of the electric field inside the liquid is not a simple one but it can approximate by an
evanescent field for relative thick samples. However, in general, numerical solutions must be found. Assuming a spatially
periodic illumination, produced by the interference of pair of coherent beams from a laser, it is expected to spatially modulate
the refractive index of the liquid crystal. The impedance of liquid crystals and a:Si are both dependent on the frequency of the
field and hence the torque will also be frequency-dependent. As it is well known, optodielectrophoresis is activated with
low power lasers and we intend to study the possibility to record dynamic holograms with cheap light sources.

3. EXPERIMENTS
An schematic diagram of the device used in this work is shown in figure 1. It consists of couple of glass plates with
indium thin oxide (ITO) electrodes deposited on them. On top of one of ITO electrodes, a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)
aligning rubbing film was deposited by spin-coating and rubbed unidirectionally with a soft tissue. On the other glass
plate, a thin film of 50 nm of highly doped amorphous silicon (a:Si +) was deposited on top of the ITO electrode in order
to reduce the contact resistance with a:Si-H. Then, a 1 m thick film of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a:Si-H), grown
at 230C, was deposited on top of a:Si+ followed by a 20 nm thin film of a silicon nitride (SiN). Finally, a PVA aligning
layer was deposited and rubbed on the same direction as the previous one. The SiN dielectric film avoided electrical
contact between the LC and the a:Si-H. 20 m spacers were placed between the glass plates and two extremes of the
cell were glued with an epoxy resin. Finally, the 5CB liquid crystals were heat up above its nematic-isotropic phase
transition temperature (35C) and the cell was filled in by capillarity and sealed. An AC electric field from a function
generator was applied between the ITO electrodes.

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Glass
PVA

SiN (20nm)

20 m

AC

a:Si-H (1 m)
a:Si+

Glass

Figure 1. The red arrow represents the laser beam entering by the side of the photoconductor film. The photogenerated
space charge field reorient the liquid crystals molecules on the illuminated area. The liquid crystal cell is aligned parallel to
the substrate before illumination. The heavily doped a:Si+ is used to reduce the contact resistance and the SiN film is to
avoid electric contact between the liquid crystal and the amorphous silicon.

Two coherent beams from a He-Ne laser (=633nm) interfere on the sample to produce a sinusoidal light distribution as
shown in figure 2. The beams of equal power (0.75 mW) are obtained using an unpolarized beam splitter. The
intersection angle of the beams can be adjusted to change the grating period of the interference pattern. Using a function
generator, a sinusoidal AC field is applied to the cell whilst illuminated. One of the beam is chopped at a frequency of ~1
kHz, which is much larger than the inverse of the response time (~tens of milliseconds), in order to reduce the noise on
the diffracted signal, since its intensity may be quite low. Detection is carried out with a photodetector connected to a
lock-in amplifier, and this in its turn, controlled by a computer.

Figure 2. Experimental set up for hologram recording in a:Si-liquid crystal hybrid device.

The sample is thin since several diffracted orders are produced. The reported diffraction efficiency will always be
measured on the first-order of diffraction. This was determined by measuring the transmitted beam intensity I0 of one
beam while the other is blocked and the voltage is applied, then the zero I 0 and first order I1 intensity are measured again
when both beams are present. The largest diffraction efficiency measured is small ~3.3%, so we can approximated the

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diffraction efficiency of the first order by the argument of the first-order Bessel function, i.e J1(x)~x/2. Thus, the
diffraction efficiency is measured using

I1
J12 (2n2 Id / ) (n2 Id / ) 2 ,
I1 I 0

(4)

where n2 is the nonlinear refractive index, d is the liquid crystal thickness, I the total beam intensity and is the
wavelength of the laser beam. From Eq.(4), the nonlinear refractive index can be easily calculated.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Figure 3 shows the absorption spectra of the device. It can be seen that light is strongly absorbed in the visible part of the
spectra. In particular, for He-Ne (=6.33 nm) transmission is weak (see inset were the actual device is shown) but large
enough to see through it (see inset). Near infrared absorption up ~1 m is weak but high enough to allow charge
excitation, so operation of this device in this important spectral range is possible. In fact we perform hologram recording
at 1.064 m although higher intensity is required; these results will be presented elsewhere.

Optical Density OD

a:Si-H

0
600

800

1000

Wavelength (nm)
Figure 3. Absorption spectra of the hybrid device. Inset shows the actual device and viewing through it.

The absorption coefficient of the whole cell at 633 nm is determined from incident, reflected and transmitted light
using the equation I t I 0 (1 I r / I t )2 ed , where Io, It and Ir are the incident, transmitted and reflected intensity, and d
is the cell thickness. The obtained absorption coefficient is 6.5x104 cm-1, i.e. most all light is absorbed and only 4% of
the light is transmitted in ~1 m thick film of a:Si. The light intensity in the liquid crystal is so low that no reorientation
is possible. However, the observation of several diffraction orders indicate the periodic reorientation of liquid crystals,
indicating that the space charge in the a:Si is playing a role on the liquid crystal reorientation.
We have used quasi-static approximation of the AC/DC module of Comsol Multiphysics to find the electric field and its
spatial distribution inside the liquid crystal. In the model, only the liquid crystal (20 m) and a:Si film (1 m) play a role
in determining the electric field2. In the simulation, a conductivity of 5CB is 1x10-5 S/m and for 10-8 S/m (in the dark) for

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the a:Si-H are used together with the absorption coefficient reported above. An AC field is applied between the
semitransparent ITO electrodes. It was assumed that the electrical conductivity is uniform inside the film and the lateral
distribution of the photoconductivity is a linear function of the illumination intensity. In order to understand the behavior
of the electric field inside the liquid crystal, a single Gaussian beam is incident from below (see figure 4) and propagates
along the +z direction. The x-axis is parallel to liquid crystal-a:Si interface. Given the axial symmetry of the problem,
Comsol Multiphysics reduce the problem to only half of the cell as shown in figure 4.
Surface: Norma del Campo elctrico(//m1

x10-5

50

6.556x106

Propagation distance z [m]

x106
2

40 4
1.8

16

30 3

14

20

12

20 m

10 1

5CB

10V
1

08

06

-10-1

04

a:Si-H

Beam Waist

02

-20-2
6556
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

x10

x [m]
Figure 4. Geometry of the model and distribution of the electric field inside the liquid crystal.

Figure 5 shows the electric field profiles along the lateral and propagation distance obtained from figure 4 when an
applied field of 10 V and a Gaussian beam with waist of 17 m are used. Fig. 5a shows the lateral electric field
distribution and the Gaussian beam for comparison. Note that the electric field far from the illuminated region is
practically zero on the liquid crystal and, therefore, no reorientation is expected. The electric field far from the
illuminated region drops on the amorphous silicon. On the other hand, on the illuminated region up to 60% of the field
drops inside the liquid crystal and therefore liquid crystal reorientation may be achieved. For thicker samples (>20 m)
the electric field inside the liquid crystal decays exponentially. In particular for our sample is almost exponential. While
for thinner samples, the electric field inside the liquid crystal is almost constant. The electric field inside the liquid
crystal is large enough to induce reorientation of the liquid crystals.

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5
Electric field x10 (V/m)

5
Electric field x10 (V/m)

a)
6

Gaussian beam profile

b)
6

0
0

20

40

60

80

Lateral distance (m)

10

15

20

Propagation distance (m)

Figure 5. Electric field profiles along the lateral (a) and propagation distance (b) obtained from figure 4 when an

applied field of 10 V and a Gaussian beam with waist of 17 m are used

When using sinusoidal illumination, the electric field inside the liquid crystal is expected to be a copy of the illumination
pattern and therefore a phase grating should be recorded. Diffraction from the sinusoidal phase grating will result on the
generation of several diffraction orders. In figure 6 the diffraction efficiency was measured as a function of the
modulation voltage. There is a threshold voltage ~4 V, above which liquid crystal reorientation occurs, the it grows up to
a maximum of 3.5% at 8V and then decreases for higher voltage.

Diffraction efficiency (%)

3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
4

10

12

14

16

Applied Voltage (V)

Figure 6. The maximum diffraction efficiency of ~ 3.5% is achieved around 8V and a frequency of 500 kHz.

For our 20 m thick liquid crystal layer, a beam waist of 0.4 mm, power of 1.5 mW, and wavelength of 633nm we
obtained from Eq.(4), a nonlinear refractive index change of n2~0.1 cm2/W at the maximum diffraction of 3.5%. This
value compares well with values reported for dye-doped liquid crystals using similar power values11. To our knowledge,
this is the first time holograms are recorded using pure liquid crystals and unfocused He-Ne lasers.

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5. CONCLUSIONS
We propose a novel hybrid device for dynamic hologram recording based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a:Si-H)
and 5Cb liquid crystals. Diffraction efficiency of 3.5% is obtained when holograms are recorded with a low (1.5 mW)
power He-Ne laser. The device operates in the red to near-infrared part of the spectrum.

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[8] Schwarz, R., Wang, F. and Reissner, M. Fermi-level dependence of the ambipolar diffusion length in amorphoussilicon thin-film transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 63, 1083-1085 (1993).
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