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What is Chiral Technology?
The word ‘chiral’ derives from the Greek word for hand “ceir” (‘kheir) indicating that a chiral structure has handedness (i.e. can be either right- or left-handed) and cannot be superimposed on its mirror image. |
90 second animation produced by National Science Foundation about how chiral photonics works!
This National Science Foundation animation demonstrates how a beam of unpolarized light can be filtered into a polarized beam by the periodic twist of a specially-made optical fiber.
Courtesy of Keyence Corporation
Actual view of Chiral Photonics’ process taken directly off tower
Chiral Photonics is developing products that exploit the unique concurrence of spectral and polarization selectivity that chiral structures offer. The structures are self-assembling or are manufactured via low cost continuous processes that deliver both cost and performance advantages over present technologies.
Our work has centered on expanding our understanding of the photophysics of one-dimensional, periodic, chiral structures and applying it to solve the device needs of the display, optical telecommunications and sensing industries. In this effort, we extended its fabrication capabilities from its ongoing development of self-assembling polymeric thin films to also include glass fiber and glass capillary structures. We have an expansive array of patents pending in this field and regularly publishes its research and developments.
Our development effort can be divided along materials lines focusing on different market needs:
Chiral Thin Film Structures:
These efforts are focused on developing an organic, self-assembling thin film laser based on the photonic band gap properties of cholesteric liquid crystals that we have pioneered over the last few years. Chiral Photonics has demonstrated an optically pumped Chiral Thin Film Laser and is working towards an electronically pumped organic laser for which this chiral structure is an ideal feedback system. This development work addresses display, lighting and sensor applications.
Chiral Fibers:
Chiral Photonics has discovered that the chiral structure responsible for the photonic band gap behavior in its thin film technology can be abstractly applied to optical fibers for a variety of applications ranging from telecommunications to surgical lasers to biological and chemical analysis to remote sensing. These chiral fiber gratings (CFGs) do not require coherent irradiation of photosensitive glass as in presently used fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) but rather are created in a continuous versatile process from specially prepared preforms.
CFGs made with a grating period comparable to the optical wavelength, make possible the production of strongly modulated periodic structures exhibiting the favorable optical characteristics found in photonic band gap (PBG) materials. These CFGs form an ideal laser feedback structure and when appropriately doped will overcome the barriers that have inhibited the commercial development of single longitudinal and polarization mode fiber lasers. Appropriately varying the pitch of these gratings changes their operational characteristics and determines the products targeted.
- Helica™ Polarizer Product Brief
- Helica™ Coupler Product Brief
- Helica™ Sensor Product Brief
- Microfabrication Product Brief
