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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.

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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.

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

    Duncan Graham-Rowe

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

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