3A05 Control of Laser Action in Dye-Doped Short Pitch Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Mixtures

Abstract

Mirrorless lasing has been demonstrated in a dye-doped chiral smectic liquid crystal (SmC^*) mixtures whose periodicity is equivalent to the visible optical wavelength. As an excitation source, second harmonic light of a regenerative amplifier system based on a Ti : sapphire laser (400nm) was used. In the SmC^* phase, helical pitch can be changed by changing temperature and applying electric field perpendicular to helical axis, and the lasing wavelength can be also tuned by adjusting the periodicity of the helical pitch. The application to a waveguide laser device has been also studied.