화학공학소재연구정보센터
Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.560, 101-107, 2012
Fast and Continuous Tunable Lasing from a Nano-Pore Embedded Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Film
Continuous tuning of lasing wavelength is demonstrated using a photopolymerized cholesteric liquid crystal film embedded with nano-sized liquid crystal droplets. The film is fabricated simply by irradiating ultraviolet light on a mixture comprising photopolymerizable and non-photopolymerizable cholesteric liquid crystals. Because the droplets are smaller than the wavelength of light, they do not contribute to scattering but only to the effective refractive index of the composite: tuning of the lasing wavelength is achieved by applying a field to reorient the liquid crystal molecules in the droplets, thus changing its refractive index. These electro-tunable films also show fast tuning properties and improved thermal stability, making them potentially useful to realize ultra-compact, tunable dye lasers.