Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Out of the lab
  • Published:

A new twist to tuning lasers

Nature Photonics volume 3, pages 183–184 (2009)Cite this article

Self-organizing liquid crystals could spawn a new breed of extremely useful and cheap tunable lasers. Such lasers may ultimately prove to be useful for creating flat-screen displays with better colours, enhanced sensors and compact medical instruments. Duncan Graham-Rowe takes a closer look.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Image of red–green–blue reflection by a hybrid dye liquid crystal structure.
Figure 2: Image of laser emission from the gradient-pitch liquid crystal laser cell illustrating simultaneously occurring polychromatic laser emission.
Figure 3: Tunable laser action.
Figure 4: Changing appearance of a sample of cholesteric liquid single-crystal elastomer under white-light illumination as a function of mechanical strain.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duncan Graham-Rowe is a freelance science and technology journalist based in Brighton, UK. duncangr@gmail.com,

    Duncan Graham-Rowe

Authors
  1. Duncan Graham-Rowe
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Graham-Rowe, D. A new twist to tuning lasers. Nature Photon 3, 183–184 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.33

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2009.33

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing