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Nature Photonics 2, 593–594 (1 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.193

View from...LC2CAM: Flowing crystals glow

Rachel Won

Liquid crystals doped with nanosized particles, dyes and other additives could be the answer for creating a new breed of photonic material with enhanced properties, such as increased birefringence, dielectric anisotropy or optical gain. In particular, when doped with photoresponsive and light-emitting dyes, such engineered liquid-crystal materials may play a valuable future role in a wide range of applications ranging from optical switching and diffractive optics to optical data storage and tunable lasers.