Light Sensitive Liquid Crystals for All-Optical Photonic Devices

We report our recent efforts on the fabrication and characterization of light responsive devices realized in soft composite materials. Periodic microstructures obtained by means of a photolithographic technique and a chemical etching process have been used to micro confine a light responsive liquid crystal stabilized through a self-organization processes. The high quality, light responsive, periodic microstructures have been exploited for realizing different all-optical, fast and low power applications. An overview of the realized photonic devices is presented.