Open AccessElectro-tunable liquid crystal laser based on high-Q Fabry-Pérot microcavity
Author(s) -
Won Suk Lee,
Wenjie Wang,
Guksik Lee,
Seong Ho Ryu,
Xudong Fan,
Dong Ki Yoon
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.25.000874
Subject(s) - lasing threshold , liquid crystal , materials science , fabry–pérot interferometer , laser , optoelectronics , optics , dye laser , wavelength , physics
We demonstrate an electro-tunable laser based on a plano-concave (p-c) Fabry-Pérot (FP) microcavity filled with dye-doped liquid crystal (LC) gain material. Owing to the high Q-factor of the p-c FP microcavity, the lasing threshold of the LC laser is as low as 0.58 µJ/mm 2 . The single-mode emission wavelength can be easily tuned by varying applied voltage, which induces the reconfiguration of LC molecules. Furthermore, this lasing platform operates at room temperature, thanks to the wide temperature range of the nematic LC. We believe that our LC laser is widely applicable to light sources of various micro total analysis systems.