Biography:Professor Masahito Oh-e earned his master’s degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, after which he worked as a research scientist at the Hitachi Research Laboratory of Hitachi, Ltd. He went on to earn his Ph.D. from the Tokyo Institute of Technology while also working as a research scientist at Hitachi, Ltd. He then became a visiting research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Continuing to work at Hitachi, he worked with the Japanese government on several projects as part of the Yokoyama Nano-structured Liquid Crystal Project between 2002 and 2008 under research programs called “Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology” and “Solution Oriented Research for Science and Technology” organized by Japan Science and Technology Agency. In 2016, Dr. Oh-e began working as a professor at the Institute of Photonics Technologies, Department of Electrical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan.As one of the inventors of in-plane switching (IPS) liquid crystal displays (LCDs), Dr. Oh-ehas successfully built many frameworks based on IPStechnology, which has enabled developing flat panel monitors and TVs.During this research, Dr. Oh-e eventually contributed to successfully developing ultra-broad viewing angle LCD screens, which are now an industry standard used in numerous common devices such as LCD TVs, tablets, and smartphones, including iPhones.
Mastering Liquid Crystal Phase Technologies for Terahertz Modulation
Liquid crystal (LC) devices for terahertz (THz) phase modulation have a thick cell gap, which inevitably results in a very slow response, particularly when they rely on the passive relaxation of LCs. To vastly improve the response characteristics of LCs for use in THz phase modulation, we virtually demonstrate novel LC switching between in-plane and out-of-plane for reversible switching between three orthogonal orientation states, broadening the range of continuous phase shifts. This LC switching is realized using a pair of substrates, each with two pairs of orthogonal finger-type electrodes and one grating-type electrode for in- and out-of-plane switching. An applied voltage generates an electric field that drives each switching process between the three distinct orientation states, enabling a rapid response.
