Optical manipulation of photonic defect-modes in cholesteric liquid crystals induced by direct laser-lithography

Manipulation of photonic defect-modes in cholesteric liquid crystals (ChLCs), which are one-dimensional pseudo photonic band-gap materials have been demonstrated by an external optical field. A structural defect in which the pitch length of the ChLC in the bulk and the defect are different was introduced by inducing local polymerization in a photo-polymerizable ChLC material by a direct laser-lithography process, and infiltrating a different ChLC material as the defect medium. When an azobenzene dye-doped ChLC was infiltrated in the defect, the trans-cis isomerization of the dye upon ultraviolet (UV) exposure caused the pitch to shorten, changing the contrast in the pitch lengths at the bulk and the defect, leading to a consequent shifting of the defect-mode. The all-optical manipulation was reversible and had high reproducibility.     

Evolution of complete photonic band gap in anisotropic photonic quasicrystals using liquid crystals

Abstract

In this study, we analyse the evolution of complete photonic band gap in two-dimensional photonic structures by arranging the 12-fold symmetric quasicrystalline unit cells on square and triangular lattices. The unit cells composed of circular air holes in anisotropic tellurium background and the air holes are infiltrated with liquid crystal. Using the supercell method based on plane wave expansion, we study the variation of complete band gap by changing the optical axis orientation of liquid crystals.     

Temperature control of the ultra-short laser pulse compression in a one-dimensional photonic band gap structure with nematic liquid crystal as a defect layer

We investigate numerically the controllable chirped pulse compression in a one-dimensional photonic structure containing a nematic liquid crystal defect layer using the temperature dependent refractive index of the liquid crystal. We consider the structure under irradiation by near-infrared ultra-short laser pulses polarized parallel to the liquid crystal director at a normal angle of incidence. It is found that the dispersion behaviour and consequently the compression ability of the system can be changed in a controlled manner due to the variation in the defect temperature. When the temperature increased from 290 to 305 K, the transmitted pulse duration decreased from 75 to 42 fs in the middle of the structure, correspondingly. As a result, a novel low-loss tunable pulse compressor with a really compact size and high compression factor is achieved. The so-called transfer matrix method is utilized for numerical simulations of the band structure and reflection/transmission spectra of the structure under investigation.     

Photorefractivity in polymer dissolved liquid crystal composites composed of low-molecular-weight nematic liquid crystals and copolymer comprising mesogenic side groups

This paper describes the photorefractive effect of the liquid crystalline composite materials comprising low-molecular-weight nematic liquid crystals (L-LC), copolymer with mesogenic side groups and a small amount of photosensitizer. Copolymers with four kinds of mesogenic side groups were investigated with respect to the compatibility between the L-LC and the copolymer and the photorefractivity of the composites. Two of them could be miscible with L-LC and the composite exhibited LC phase even though the copolymer itself did not show a LC phase. High gain coefficients (> cm^K1) under the low applied dc electric field (<1V/mm) was observed when the composites showed a mesophase without any macroscopic phase separation.