Enhanced optical nonlinearity near the photonic bandgap edges of a cholesteric liquid crystal.

The third-order Kerr nonlinear optical effect of a one-dimensional photonic bandgap structure of a cholesteric liquid crystal is investigated. In a femtosecond nonlinear transmission measurement, nonlinear optical changes in the bandgap edges are observed. From analysis of the dispersion relation, Kerr nonlinear coefficients of nematics, forming the cholesteric liquid crystal, are found to be enhanced by 1-2 orders of magnitude through the photonic bandgap structure.

[1]  H. Winful.  Nonlinear Reflection in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals: Mirrorless Optical Bistability , 1982 .

[2]  M. Fayer,et al.  Analysis of complex molecular dynamics in an organic liquid by polarization selective subpicosecond transient grating experiments , 1989 .

[3]  J. Etchepare,et al.  Third-order electronic susceptibilities of liquids measured by femtosecond kinetics of optical Kerr effect , 1985 .

[4]  V. Kopp,et al.  Low-threshold lasing at the edge of a photonic stop band in cholesteric liquid crystals. , 1998, Optics letters.

[5]  Polarization selectivity in time-resolved transient phase grating , 1987 .

[6]  H. Eichler,et al.  Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Mirrors for Pulsed Solid-State Lasers , 1996 .

[7]  Robert W Boyd,et al.  Dramatic enhancement of third-harmonic generation in three-dimensional photonic crystals. , 2004, Physical review letters.

[8]  J. Joannopoulos,et al.  Photonic crystals: putting a new twist on light , 1997, Nature.

[9]  V. Kopp,et al.  Twist defect in chiral photonic structures. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[10]  Peter G. LoPresti,et al.  Dynamics of picosecond laser‐induced density, temperature, and flow‐reorientation effects in the mesophases of liquid crystals , 1991 .

[11]  Svetlana G. Lukishova,et al.  NONLINEAR OPTICAL RESPONSE OF CYANOBIPHENYL LIQUID CRYSTALS TO HIGH-POWER, NANOSECOND LASER RADIATION , 2000 .

[12]  D. W. Berreman,et al.  Optics in Stratified and Anisotropic Media: 4×4-Matrix Formulation , 1972 .

[13]  Robert A Norwood,et al.  Nonlinear optical processes in lower dimensional conjugated structures , 1989, Annual Meeting Optical Society of America.

[14]  Isabelle Sagnes,et al.  Enhancement of second-harmonic generation in a one-dimensional semiconductor photonic band gap , 2001 .

[15]  Wong Ky,et al.  Third-harmonic-generation study of orientational order in nematic liquid crystals. , 1986 .

[16]  W. Vos,et al.  Ultrafast switching of photonic density of states in photonic crystals , 2002 .