All-optically controllable distributed feedback laser in a dye-doped holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal grating with a photoisomerizable dye.

This work demonstrates, for the first time, an all-optically controllable distributed feedback (DFB) laser based on a dye-doped holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (DDHPDLC) grating with a photoisomerizable dye. Intensity of the lasing emission can be reduced and increased by raising the irradiation intensity of one CW circularly-polarized green beam and the irradiation time of one CW circularly-polarized red beam, respectively. The all-optical controllability of the lasing emission is owing to the green-beam-induced isothermal nematic-->isotropic and red-beam-induced isothermal isotropic-->nematic phase transitions of the LCs via trans-->cis and cis-->trans back isomerizations of the azo-dye, respectively, in the LC-droplet-rich regions of the grating. The former (latter) mechanism can reduce (increase) the index modulation and thereby the coupling strength in the DFB grating, resulting in the decay (rise) of the lasing emission. Thermal effect is excluded from possible mechanisms causing such an optical controllability of the lasing emission.