Fabrication and Characterization of Liquid Crystal Waveguides in PDMS Channels for Optofluidic Applications

We present our recent experimental results on the fabrication and the characterization of PDMS rectangular channel waveguides infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal. Optical characterization of waveguide structures with three different widths recently implemented are reported. The particular molecular alignment inside PDMS waveguide allows polarization independent propagation despite liquid crystal anisotropy. Soft material technology based on PDMS used to fabricate liquid crystal channel waveguides is low cost and easy to implement, allowing to obtain any geometry.