3C11 Temperature Dependence of Laser Action and Electric Field Effect in Cholesteric Liquid Crystal

Abstract

The laser action in a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) has been investigated as a function of the temperature. The discontinuous shift of the lasing wavelength has been observed. It has been also found that the shift of the stop band in the CLC is also discontinuous when the size of the measured area for the spectrum is small. These results have been interpreted to originate from the disappearance of every a half period of the CLC helix in the unwinding process as the temperature decreases.