The liquid crystal acts as both the distributed cavity host and the active medium. Simple optical pumping of such a sample results in low-threshold, mirrorless lasing at the band edges. Liquid crystal elastomers can change their shape when the orientational order of the constituents is changed – by changing the temperature, applying a field or introducing impurities.
“We are continuing to work in this area to develop new materials which are even better at tunable lasing,” Palffy-Muhoray said. “Today, primarily scientists looking for better understanding of light-matter interactions and engineers planning for future devices benefit from the results of our study. However, tomorrow, society at large is likely to benefit. Before 1970, liquid crystal research was mainly driven by scientific curiosity. The discovery of the twisted-nematic effect and the invention of liquid crystal displays at the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University transformed display technology, benefiting people all over the world.”
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