Thermodielectric generation of defect modes in a photonic liquid crystal.

Photonic defect modes induced by in situ formation of an ill-defined defect layer is demonstrated in a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC). The local deformation of the one-dimensionally periodic helical structure is achieved by means of the thermodielectric effect, which alters the pitch in the middle of the cholesteric structure. The defect-mode peak in the photonic band gap appears in the transmission spectrum only when the incident circularly polarized light has the same handedness as that of the CLC structure. The wavelength of the deformation-induced defect mode can be tuned upon varying the dielectric heating power by simply applying a frequency-modulated voltage.

Tunable narrow-bandpass filter based on an asymmetric photonic bandgap structure with a dual-mode liquid crystal.

A one-dimensional asymmetric photonic crystal with dual-frequency liquid crystal as a central defect layer was demonstrated. Such asymmetric structure was characterized by the dramatic increase in intensity of the electric field of light localized at the overlapped photonic bandgap edges, thereby enhancing the observed transmittance of the spectral windows originating from the defect layer. The defect layer was made of a dual-mode liquid crystal that exhibited not only electrical tunability and switchability but also optical bistability. Consequently, tunable and bistable defect modes can be realized in the photonic structure. This asymmetric photonic crystal structure is promising and should be further explored for photonic device applications.

Ultralow-threshold single-mode lasing based on a one-dimensional asymmetric photonic bandgap structure with liquid crystal as a defect layer.

In this Letter, we propose defect-mode lasing from a one-dimensional asymmetric photonic structure with dye-doped nematic liquid crystal as a central defect layer. The local field intensity of the distinguished single defect mode at the overlapped photonic band edges is drastically enhanced by the asymmetric structure consisting of two distinct multilayer photonic crystals. With high density of states of photons, effective output lasing emission and maximum input excitation are ensured. As a result, the single-mode lasing with a low excitation threshold of 0.2 µJ/pulse is achieved due to the combination of the defect layer and the photonic band edge effect.