Ibrahim Abdulhalim
Israel
BEN GURION UNIV OF THE NEGEV
Presentation title: Liquid Crystal Devices for Photonic Applications: Fast Light Modulation, Imaging, and Energy Saving
Ibrahim Abdulhalim has been a Professor of Electrooptics and Photonics Engineering at Ben-Gurion University since 2005, where he also served as the Head of the Department from 2007 to 2015. He has held positions at several academic institutions and companies, including the OCSC at UC Boulder, the ORC at Southampton University, the Thin Films Center at the University of Western Scotland, KLA-Tencor, Nova, and GWS Photonics. His current research focuses on liquid crystal devices for bioimaging and photonic applications, tunable nanophotonic metamaterials for biosensing and energy conservation, and optical imaging. He has published over 300 articles, authored two books, contributed 12 book chapters, and holds 25 granted patents. Abdulhalim is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IoP) and SPIE, a Senior Member of OPTICA, and a member of the International Liquid Crystal Society (ILCS). He has served on the editorial boards of several journals and is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Sensors and Biosensors and a Topical Editor for Applied Optics. Abdulhalim has supervised over 50 graduate students throughout his career, including M.Sc., Ph.D., and postdoctoral researchers. He is also the founder of two companies: Photonicsys, specializing in miniature plasmonic sensors, and Photoliqsys, which develops advanced liquid crystal devices.
Faster liquid crystal (LC) devices with sufficiently large electro-optic responses are in high demand for various photonic non-display applications, including imaging, optical telecommunications, and integrated photonics. However, achieving both fast response times and strong electro-optic effects is inherently challenging, as these two characteristics typically compete against each other—a limitation rooted in the linear response theorem. We have been developing several strategies to mitigate the problem lately: (i) tailored design to the specific application, (ii) combining LCs with metasurfaces, (iii) designing nanocavity resonant structures where the optical field is concentrated in a region where the LC responds faster to external perturbations. I will present the concepts and performance of several devices we have developed, which are suitable for fast spectral imaging, fast polarimetric imaging, optical telecommunications, smart windows for energy saving, and integrated photonics.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.
References:
[1] Majd Abu Aisheh, C. K. Amaljith, I. Abdulhalim, Enhanced Speed and Tunability of Liquid Crystals in Nanocavities via Engineering the Local Electromagnetic Field, ACS Photonics, 12(2), 908-916, (2025). https://doi.org/10.1021/acsphotonics.4c01916
[2] D. Pasha, Majd Abu Aisheh, M. Abuliel, and I. Abdulhalim, Enhancing the capabilities of liquid crystal-based multispectral imaging by tailoring to the specific application, Optical Engineering 63(12), 123101 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.63.12.123101
[3] Doron Pasha, Marwan J. Abuleil, Isaac August, Ibrahim Abdulhalim, Faster multispectral imager based on thin liquid crystal modulator and 3D neural network lattice, Lasers&Photonics Review 2200913(8p) (2023). https://doi.org/10.1002/lpor.202200913
[4] Majd Abu Aisheh, I. Abdulhalim, Fast Polarization Independent Tunable Liquid Crystal Solc Filter using Sagnac Configuration, Optics Letters 50(5), 1429 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.543067