Featured
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News & Views |
Chiral switches bring new twist to photonics
A liquid crystal doped with a diarylethene enantiomer can be switched by light into stable reflection states of different colour, creating new opportunities for lasing and labelling.
- Bohan Chen
- , Zimo Zhao
- & Stephen M. Morris
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Article |
Digital photoprogramming of liquid-crystal superstructures featuring intrinsic chiral photoswitches
Chiral liquid-crystal materials with optical properties that can be tuned, erased and reversed offer new opportunities in labelling, displays and anti-counterfeiting.
- Zhigang Zheng
- , Honglong Hu
- & Ben L. Feringa
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News & Views |
Longitudinal fields and transverse rotations
Electromagnetic fields in light waves are mainly transverse to propagation direction but actually also have longitudinal components, which may give rise to unexpected optical phenomena involving the angular momentum of light, such as transverse spin and optical torques.
- Filippo Cardano
- & Lorenzo Marrucci
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Letter |
Sensitive vectorial optomechanical footprint of light in soft condensed matter
Researchers demonstrate vectorial optomechanical effects using a nematic liquid crystal and report creation of multiple self-induced lenses from a single beam.
- Mohamed El Ketara
- , Hirokazu Kobayashi
- & Etienne Brasselet
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Letter |
Guiding light via geometric phases
A mechanism for confining and guiding light that relies on spin–orbit interactions of light is presented.
- Sergei Slussarenko
- , Alessandro Alberucci
- & Lorenzo Marrucci
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News & Views |
A laser for complex spatial modes
A cavity design that makes it possible to directly generate Laguerre–Gaussian modes on demand looks set to benefit applications in microscopy and data communications.
- Robert R. Alfano
- , Giovanni Milione
- & Lingyan Shi
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Letter |
Planar optics with patterned chiral liquid crystals
Patterned chiral liquid crystals operate as configurable optical elements.
- Junji Kobashi
- , Hiroyuki Yoshida
- & Masanori Ozaki
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Article |
Controlled generation of higher-order Poincaré sphere beams from a laser
By exploiting geometric phase control inside a laser cavity to map polarization to orbital angular momentum, a new class of laser that is able to generate all states on the higher-order Poincaré sphere is reported.
- Darryl Naidoo
- , Filippus S. Roux
- & Andrew Forbes
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Letter |
Optofluidic modulator based on peristaltic nematogen microflows
Based on peristaltic nematogen microflows in polydimethylsiloxane, scientists demonstrate an optofluidic modulator that exhibits a symmetric 250 µs response and can operate at frequencies of up to 1 kHz.
- J. G. Cuennet
- , A. E. Vasdekis
- & D. Psaltis
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Industry Perspective |
Liquid crystal on silicon
Microdisplays based on liquid-crystal-on-silicon technology may soon gain wider recognition as they penetrate an increasing number of markets, ranging from electronic viewfinders to miniature data projectors and head-up displays.
- David Vettese
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Business News |
LCD manufacturers face price crisis
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Review Article |
Liquid-crystal lasers
Wide-band tunability, large coherence-area, and in some cases multidirectional emission have made liquid-crystal lasers an attractive light source for applications like miniature medical diagnostic tool and large-area holographic laser displays. This article discusses the scientific origins of the technology of liquid-crystal lasers and reviews the current cutting-edge research.
- Harry Coles
- & Stephen Morris
Interaction and co-assembly of optical and topological solitons
On-demand display
Light-driven flytrap
Realizing 3D topological solitons
Self-assembled fibres
Paper-like mirrors
Bridging the visible
Tiny tunable 3D lasers