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Mirrorless Lasing in Liquid Crystalline Photonic Bandgap Materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

Wenyi Cao ,
Antonio Muñoz ,
Peter Palffy-Muhoray  and
Bahman Taheri
Wenyi Cao
Affiliation:
Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA
Antonio Muñoz
Affiliation:
Departamento de Fisica, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico
Peter Palffy-Muhoray
Affiliation:
Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA
Bahman Taheri
Affiliation:
Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44242, USA
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Abstract

Liquid crystals (LC) are promising photonic bandgap (PBG) materials. Certain LC phases have spatially modulated ground states and effectively form self-assembled PBG structures. These structures can also be made permanent by photopolymerization. Typically, LCs respond readily to applied fields, enabling modulation and switching of the bandgap. Since classical light propagation is forbidden, fluorescent emission in the band gap can lead to population inversion and stimulated emission at the band edges. Mirrorless lasing experiments provide an effective probe of the bandgap. We discuss the underlying physics, and present the results of mirrorless lasing in a variety of cholesteric LC materials, including recent results of photon counting statistics and 3-D lasing in the cholesteric blue phase.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 776: Symposium Q – Unconventional Approaches to Nanostructures with Applications in Electronics, Photonics, Information Storage and Sensing , 2003 , Q9.7
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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