title: Tuning the photonic band gap in cholesteric liquid crystals by temperature-dependent dopant solubility.
abstract: We have investigated the physical and optical properties of the left-handed chiral dopant ZLI-811 mixed in a nematic liquid crystal (LC) host BL006. The solubility of ZLI-811 in BL006 at room temperature is ~24 wt%, but can be enhanced by increasing the temperature. Consequently, the photonic band gap of the cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) mixed with more than 24 wt% chiral dopant ZLI-811 is blue shifted as the temperature increases. Based on this property, we demonstrate two applications in thermally tunable band-pass filters and dye-doped CLC lasers.
authors.forename: Yuhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Charlie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Doyle
authors.forename: Shin-Tson
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Wu