Temperature-induced tuning of emission spectra of liquid-crystal optical microcavities

Pavel Zemánek; Zdeněk Pilát; Jan Ježek; Silvie Bernatová; Mehdi Aas; Alper Kiraz; Alexandr Jonáš

doi:10.1117/12.2262495

23 December 2016 Temperature-induced tuning of emission spectra of liquid-crystal optical microcavities

Pavel Zemánek, Zdeněk Pilát, Jan Ježek, Silvie Bernatová, Mehdi Aas, Alper Kiraz, Alexandr Jonáš

Proceedings Volume 10142, 20th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics; 101420F (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2262495
Event: 20th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 2016, Jasna, Slovakia

Abstract

Emulsion droplets of liquid crystals (LC) suspended in water and labeled with a suitable fluorescent dye can serve as active optofluidic microcavities, since the contrast of refractive index between the LC droplets and the surrounding aqueous medium allows excitation of whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in the droplets. In addition, such emulsion droplets can be also stably trapped in three-dimensions using optical tweezers which stabilizes the droplets while investigating their spectral characteristics. We explore various combinations of fluorescently dyed LC droplets and host liquid - surfactant systems and show that the WGM emission spectrum of an optically trapped LC droplet-based cavity can be largely and (almost) reversibly tuned by controlled changes of the ambient temperature that induce phase transitions in the LC droplets. Our results indicate feasibility of this approach for creating miniature tunable sources of coherent light.

Citation Download Citation

Pavel Zemánek, Zdeněk Pilát, Jan Ježek, Silvie Bernatová, Mehdi Aas, Alper Kiraz, and Alexandr Jonáš "Temperature-induced tuning of emission spectra of liquid-crystal optical microcavities", Proc. SPIE 10142, 20th Slovak-Czech-Polish Optical Conference on Wave and Quantum Aspects of Contemporary Optics, 101420F (23 December 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2262495

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