公开(公告)号：US20060182401A1

公开(公告)日：2006-08-17

申请号：US11403657

申请日：2006-04-13

申请人： Steven Risser ,  Vincent McGinnis ,  Kevin Spahr ,  Richard Higgins ,  Richard Ridgway ,  Zhihua Huang ,  Edward Jiang

发明人： Steven Risser ,  Vincent McGinnis ,  Kevin Spahr ,  Richard Higgins ,  Richard Ridgway ,  Zhihua Huang ,  Edward Jiang

IPC分类号： G02B6/10

CPC分类号： C09K19/544 ,  G02F1/1326 ,  G02F1/1334 ,  G02F1/216 ,  G02F1/225 ,  G02F2001/212

摘要： Broadly, then, one aspect of the present invention is a functional optical material composed of a liquid crystal (LC) evidencing a pair of refractive indices (RI's) and a polymer in which the LC is dispersed. The refractive index (RI) of said polymer may be outside of the L C RI's by at least about 0.03. Another aspect of the present invention is a functional optical material composed of a liquid crystal (LC) and a polymer in which the LC is dispersed, wherein said LC is less than about 5% miscible in said polymer. A further aspect of the present invention is a functional optical material composed of a liquid crystal (LC) and a polymer in which the LC is dispersed, wherein the cladding contains not more than about 20 wt-% LC. In all of these embodiments, the functional optical material can be clad to an optical waveguide and can optionally contain a chromophore. In yet another aspect of the present invention, a functional optical waveguide is composed of a polymer having a refractive index, RIP and an optical waveguide clad having a refractive index, RIWG, wherein RIP is at least about 0.3% lower than RIWG under operating conditions of said clad optical waveguide.

摘要翻译： 因此，广义地说，本发明的一个方面是由液晶（LC）构成的功能性光学材料，该液晶（LC）表示一对折射率（RI）和分散有LC的聚合物。 所述聚合物的折射率（RI）可以在L C RI之外至少约0.03。 本发明的另一方面是由液晶（LC）和其中分散有LC的聚合物组成的功能性光学材料，其中所述LC小于约5％在所述聚合物中混溶。 本发明的另一方面是由液晶（LC）和分散有LC的聚合物构成的功能性光学材料，其中包层含有不超过约20重量％的LC。 在所有这些实施例中，功能性光学材料可以包覆到光波导并且可以可选地包含发色团。 在本发明的又一方面中，功能性光波导由具有折射率的聚合物RI＆lt; P＆gt;和具有折射率RI >，其中在所述包层光波导的操作条件下，RI比RIWG至少低约0.3％。