Slope efficiency characteristics of mode-hop driven tunable single-mode cholesteric liquid crystal laser

We report tunable single-mode lasing with an improved slope efficiency from a cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC) cavity with a three-layered structure. The device consists of one photopolymerized ChLC layer with a wide reflection band, another ChLC layer with a notch reflection band and a Rhodamine-6G-doped ionic liquid layer acting as the gain medium. Single-mode lasing can be obtained in this device structure because the ChLC layer with the notch reflection band strongly reflects only one of the Fabry-Perot cavity modes. Tuning of the lasing wavelength is achieved by tuning the reflection band of the notch ChLC. The device showed a maximum slope efficiency of 16%, which was found to be approximately 1.5 times larger than that of ordinary ChLC lasers doped with the pyrromethene 597 laser dye.

[1]  Hiroyuki Yoshida,et al.  Position sensitive, continuous wavelength tunable laser based on photopolymerizable cholesteric liquid crystals with an in-plane helix alignment , 2009 .

[2]  Yoichi Takanishi,et al.  How doping a cholesteric liquid crystal with polymeric dye improves an order parameter and makes possible low threshold lasing , 2003 .

[3]  R. Sastre,et al.  Wavelength dependence of the nonlinear absorption properties of laser dyes in solid and liquid solutions , 1998 .

[4]  Soon Moon Jeong,et al.  Simultaneous Red, Green, and Blue Lasing Emissions in a Single‐Pitched Cholesteric Liquid‐Crystal System , 2008 .

[5]  Peter Palffy-Muhoray,et al.  Tunable Mirrorless Lasing in Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Elastomers , 2001 .

[6]  A. Genack,et al.  Lasing and Narrowing of Spontaneous Emission from Responsive Cholesteric Films , 2004 .

[7]  R. Friend,et al.  Comparison of the performance of photonic band-edge liquid crystal lasers using different dyes as the gain medium , 2010 .

[8]  K. Yee.  Numerical solution of initial boundary value problems involving maxwell's equations in isotropic media , 1966 .

[9]  A. Mazzulla,et al.  Lasing in Three Layer Systems Consisting of Cholesteric Liquid Crystals and Dye Solution , 2008 .

[10]  Hiroyuki Yoshida,et al.  Improved Lasing Threshold of Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Lasers with In-Plane Helix Alignment , 2010 .

[11]  Jean-Pierre Berenger,et al.  A perfectly matched layer for the absorption of electromagnetic waves , 1994 .

[12]  J. Lankard,et al.  Laser-pumped stimulated emission from organic dyes: experimental studies and analytical comparisons , 1967 .

[13]  Douglas Magde,et al.  Fluorescence Quantum Yields and Their Relation to Lifetimes of Rhodamine 6G and Fluorescein in Nine Solvents: Improved Absolute Standards for Quantum Yields¶ , 2002, Photochemistry and photobiology.