Light scattering from smectic liquid-crystal waveguides

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Abstract
Light scattering properties of smectic‐A liquid‐crystal thin‐film waveguides are studied both theoretically and experimentally. A Green’s function analysis of the depolarized light scattering induced by thermal fluctuations in the average molecular alignment is presented. Scattered power distributions and scattering coefficients for mode conversion and for scattering out of the guide are derived. It is shown that the power distributions for scattering from nematic and smectic waveguides differ greatly and that scattering losses in smectic‐A liquid‐crystal waveguides are several orders of magnitude lower than those encountered in nematic guides. Power loss in these waveguides, due to light scattering arising from thermally induced dynamical distortions of the smectic planes, is calculated to be on the order of 2 dB/cm and is experimentally verified.