Slowing sub-picosecond laser pulses with 0.55 mm-thick cholesteric liquid crystal

Chun Wei Chen, Xuexue Guo, Xingjie Ni, Tsung Hsien Lin, Iam Choon Khoo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Extraordinarily thick well-aligned planar cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) cells with low scattering loss have been successfully fabricated using a field-assisted self-assembly technique. These cells exhibit excellent 1D photonic crystal properties such as photonic bandgap and strong group velocity dispersion at the band edges and enable several all-optical ultrafast laser pulse modulation operations. In particular, we report an experimental observation of the clear separation of ~1 ps between the normal and slow 600 fs light pulses after traversing a 0.55 mm-thick CLC. With simple optimization procedures, such as tuning the photonic band-edge and laser wavelength, and use of more appropriate laser pulse duration and bandwidth, one could realize a much larger effect. These extraordinarily thick CLCs have previously also demonstrated their capabilities for direct compression, stretching and recompression of sub-picosecond pulses, and thus present themselves as promising compact, all-optical and versatile alternatives to existing materials for slow-light production and ultrafast pulse modulation operations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2005-2011
Number of pages7
JournalOptical Materials Express
Volume7
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

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