Abstract
We demonstrate band edge lasing action from a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) containing an aggregation-induced-emission (AIE) dye as gain material. AIE materials do not suffer aggregation-caused quenching, have strong resistance to photobleaching, and can show large Stokes shift. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and lasing emission of the dye-doped CLC cell have been characterized, the lasing threshold has been estimated, and its resistance to photobleaching has been measured. AIE materials with their unique properties are especially suitable for acting as gain materials in liquid crystal lasers where defect structures lower the threshold for nanoscale aggregation effects. Our studies have shown that such AIE-dye-doped CLC is capable of lasing action with unusually large Stokes shift at moderate threshold with strong resistance to photobleaching.
Highlights
Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) lasers are of great interest because they adopt naturally occurring self-organizing behavior to provide the needed feedback for lasing action [1,2,3,4]
We demonstrate band edge lasing action from a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) containing an aggregation-induced-emission (AIE) dye as gain material
AIE materials with their unique properties are especially suitable for acting as gain materials in liquid crystal lasers where defect structures lower the threshold for nanoscale aggregation effects
Summary
Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) lasers are of great interest because they adopt naturally occurring self-organizing behavior to provide the needed feedback for lasing action [1,2,3,4]. One of them is that the small number of dye molecules in dilute solutions can be photobleached by strong pumping light [13], leading to the degradation of the laser performance with time, which is one of the basic drawbacks of dyedoped liquid crystal lasers Another problem is that the emission of dyes with low concentration is relatively weak, which limits the output power of dye-doped liquid crystal lasers. It is desirable to use dyes with relatively high concentration in liquid crystal laser systems to solve or at least mitigate the above problems as long as such kind of dyes don’t suffer from “concentration quenching” effects There is such a class of luminogenic materials which show a property just opposite to the “concentration quenching”. Amplified spontaneous emission and lasing action were observed at the long wavelength edge of the photonic band gap with a threshold of around 600 μJ/mm
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