Tailoring liquid crystals to become fast and efficient terahertz devices

Liquid crystals have been employed for several decades in devices such as phase shifters, Fabry-Perot filters, polarizers, phase gratings, and Bragg switches at optical frequencies. However it is only recently that such devices have been demonstrated at terahertz frequencies. This is because of several fundamental frequency dependent relationships between device properties and frequency of operation. When designing liquid crystal devices, we need to find liquid crystals with high birefringence, low viscosity and low absorption at terahertz frequencies. In this paper we will present some measurements and simulations of potentially suitable liquid crystal mixtures.