Cholesteric liquid crystal holographic laser.

A new type of lasing was obtained on the basis of a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal laser with transversally distributed excitation. Two coherent beams of the pumping laser formed an interference pattern in the planar dye-doped cholesteric layer and provided laser generation in the separate narrow strips of the pumped area. Each of the strips demonstrated lasing along the cholesteric axis.

Wide band gap materials as a new tuning strategy for dye doped cholesteric liquid crystals laser.

A new tuning strategy for mirror-less liquid crystals laser is presented. A three layer cell is prepared with two cholesteric layers sandwiching a layer containing an isotropic mixture of a photoluminescent dye. One of the chiral layers contains a wide band gap material while the second layer consists of a series of small band gap materials.

Enhancing cholesteric liquid crystal laser stability by cell rotation.

Stability of dye doped cholesteric liquid crystal laser emission from several minutes up to two hours and more was achieved by rotating the liquid crystal cell. Significant dependence of stability on surface treatment was observed.

Trans-cis isomerization and the blue phases.

A new class of photoactive chiral liquid crystals based on a photoactive nematic host material and a photoinactive chiral dopant was utilized to investigate the behavior of the blues phases when trans-cis isomerization is induced. While the general behavior follows what has been observed in the cholesteric phase, the sensitivity of the blue phases to external parameters causes different behavior when these systems are exposed to UV radiation. The results for four different mixtures are reported and include (1) modulation of the blue phase selective reflection wavelength with low levels of UV and visible light, (2) conversion of one blue phase to another upon exposure to UV light, and (3) induction of blue phases due to UV irradiation when no blue phases are stable beforehand.

Electro-optic effect in an optically active nematic chiral liquid-crystal structure.

A new electro-optic effect in an optically active nematic chiral structure beyond Mauguin's region has been studied. The effect is revealed in the absence of oscillations of the transmission-voltage curve, low requirements for orienting surfaces, and the ability to function at any direction of polarization of incident light. The limit relationships among wavelength, helical path, and optical anisotropy of the nematic matrix are determined.