Liquid Crystal Cell (LCC) for space-borne laser rangefinder for space
mission applications was developed, manufactured and tested at the Military University
of Technology (MUT)Warszawa, Poland, in cooperation with Vavilov State Optical
Institute (Vavilov SOI), Petersburg, Russia. LCC operated at the positive TN mode
(d=2.5 μm) tuned for the laser beam of a wavelength of λ=1064 nm. It switched the
polarization plane of the laser beam at the beam’s energy density not smaller than 0.15
J/cm2 at the pulse duration about 8 ns. At the working aperture, not less than 15 mm the
transmission T of LCC was not smaller than 95%. Switching-on and switching-off
times were assessed for LCC driven with a voltage of an amplitude U=10 V. At the
temperature range from 20°C to 40°C, measured switching-on and switching-off times
were not larger than 0.7 ms and 7 ms, respectively. The LLCs developed at the MUT
were tested at the Vavilov SOI under procedure dedicated to space equipment. LLCs
were mounted in the laser rangefinder of the space lander serving while the “Phobos-
Grunt” mission was launched on November 8th, 2011, in Kazakhstan.
Keywords: And twisted alignment, Contrast ratio, Dielectric anisotropy,
Homogeneous, Liquid crystal cell, Optical anisotropy, Ordinary refractive index,
Rotational viscosity, Twisted Nematic effect.
