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Self-orientation effect of liquid crystals on holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal and distributed feedback lasers

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Abstract

The average orientation of a liquid crystal (LC) director to the grating formation, morphology, and switching properties of a holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) grating was systematically investigated in this study. The grating possessed high diffraction efficiency and low scattering with the LC director being parallel to the grating vector. The scanning electron microscope confirmed the well-defined morphology with the LC director being parallel to the grating vector. The grating was easily switched when the LC director was perpendicular to the grating vector. Moreover, polarization excitation was performed to investigate the polarization dependence behavior of the HPDLC-distributed feedback (DFB) laser. The results confirmed that the HPDLC grating is suitable as a laser oscillation when the LC director is parallel to the grating vector. Finally, the tuning range was obtained for the HPDLC DFB laser by applying an external electric field. The tunability, ease of fabrication, and mass production make the HPDLC DFB lasers suitable as smart laser sources for spectroscopy and communication.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61377032 and 61378075).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Applied Optics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130033, China

    Minghuan Liu, Yonggang Liu, Zenghui Peng, Zhaoliang Cao & Li Xuan

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Minghuan Liu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130033, China

    Haifeng Zhao

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  1. Minghuan Liu
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  2. Yonggang Liu
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  3. Zenghui Peng
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  5. Zhaoliang Cao
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  6. Li Xuan
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Correspondence to Li Xuan.

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Liu, M., Liu, Y., Peng, Z. et al. Self-orientation effect of liquid crystals on holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal and distributed feedback lasers. Appl. Phys. B 123, 208 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-017-6786-8

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