Topological liquid crystal superstructures as structured light lasers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates tunable microlasers using self-assembled topological liquid crystal superstructures that emit structured light with controllable polarization and wavelength, advancing soft matter photonics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel soft matter microlaser design utilizing topological liquid crystal structures to generate customizable structured light.

Findings

Microlasers emit structured light with complex polarization.

Electric field switching enables mode control.

Temperature tuning adjusts emission wavelength.

Abstract

Liquid crystals (LCs) form an extremely rich range of self-assembled topological structures with artificially or naturally created topological defects. Some of the main applications of LCs are various optical and photonic devices, where compared to their solid state counterparts soft photonic systems are fundamentally different in terms of unique properties such as self-assembly, self-healing, large tunability, sensitivity to external stimuli and biocompatibility. Here we show that complex tunable microlasers emitting structured light can be generated from self-assembled topological LC superstructures containing topological defects inserted into a thin Fabry-P\'erot microcavity. The topology and geometry of the LC superstructure determine the structuring of the emitted light by providing complex three dimensionally varying optical axis and order parameter singularities, also affecting the topology of the light polarization. The microlaser can be switched between modes by an electric field and its wavelength can be tuned with temperature. The proposed soft matter microlaser approach opens new direction in soft matter photonics research, where structured light with specifically tailored intensity and polarization fields could be designed and implemented.