Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the lasing behavior of holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals (H-PDLCs) filled in capillary tubes (CTs). The emission properties from CTs with various core diameters are explored experimentally. The experimental results show that the smallest threshold is 19.4 μJ/pulse in CTs III (300 μm) corresponding to the largest FWHM 0.42 nm. The minimum FWHM is 0.29 nm in CTs I (75 μm) corresponding to largest threshold 31.5 μJ/pulse. According to experimental results and theoretical analysis, the different lasing behaviors from various core diameters of CTs are mainly due to the effect of phase separation between LC-rich and polymer-rich area during exposure. The temperature effects on lasing properties of H-PDLC in CTs were also investigated. Our work verifies the possibility to achieve miniature laser devices in cylindrical confinement structures, such as CT, hollow-fiber or photonic crystal fiber, and extends the applicable scope of H-PDLC.
Highlights
We investigate the lasing behavior of holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals (H-PDLCs) filled in capillary tubes (CTs)
The experimental results show that the smallest threshold is 19.4 μJ/pulse in CTs III (300 μm) corresponding to the largest FWHM 0.42 nm
The method to prepare holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals (H-PDLCs) in capillary tubes can be extended to other 2-D cylindrical geometry, such as hollow optical fiber or photonic crystal fiber, and enable miniaturized tunable laser sources for different geometric configurations
Summary
Lasing behaviors in dye-doped liquid crystals (LC) or LC-based materials have attracted much attention due to wide tunability high integration, low cost. The above mentioned LC and LC-based composite materials (nematic, cholesteric, blue phase, sematic, PDLC, H-PDLC, and PSLC etc.) can be filled into or self-form the resonators to improve or enhance the lasing properties. Among the aforementioned material systems, H-PDLC has received particular interest due to its wide applications, such as bimolecular detectors [21], high-speed optical switch [11, 22], and organic lasers [6, 17]. As aforementioned the flexibility of H-PDLC, of interest is what’s the lasing properties when the H-PDLC grating structures are prepared in a cylindrical geometry, such as photonic crystal fiber, micro capillary etc. H-PDLC structures with various grating pitches in cylindrical geometry can be integrated as an array to form a laser array with multicolor emission under the same pumping source. Effects of temperature on the lasing properties of H-PDLC in CTs were investigated as well
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
