Unique spatial continuously tunable cone laser based on a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal with a birefringence gradient

The present study develops and investigates for the first time a unique spatial continuously tunable cone laser based on a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (DDCLC) film with an LC-birefringence (Δn) gradient. A continuous Δn variation can be generated in a cell by diffusion and self-organization of CLC after four DDCLC mixtures with a discrete variation of Δn are successively injected into an empty cell. Not only the CLC photonic structure but also the lasing wavelength and the cone angle of the obtained conically symmetric emitted lasing ring can be tuned continuously by continuously changing the pumped position of the cell with an Δn gradient. The continuous tunabilities in the lasing wavelength and the corresponding emitted cone angle of the lasing ring are 605.8 → 568.1 nm and 29° → 50°, respectively, within a spatial interval of about 33 mm in the cell.