title: Optically generated reconfigurable photonic structures of elastic quasiparticles in frustrated cholesteric liquid crystals.
abstract: We describe laser-induced two-dimensional periodic photonic structures formed by localized particle-like excitations in an untwisted confined cholesteric liquid crystal. The individual particle-like excitations (dubbed "Torons") contain three-dimensional twist of the liquid crystal director matched to the uniform background director field by topological point defects. Using both single-beam-steering and holographic pattern generation approaches, the periodic crystal lattices are tailored by tuning their periodicity, reorienting their crystallographic axes, and introducing defects. Moreover, these lattices can be dynamically reconfigurable: generated, modified, erased and then recreated, depending on the needs of a particular photonic application. This robust control is performed by tightly focused laser beams of power 10-100 mW and by low-frequency electric fields at voltages ~10 V applied to the transparent electrodes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA. ivan.smalyukh@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Ivan I
authors.initials: II
authors.lastname: Smalyukh
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kaputa
authors.forename: Aliaksandr V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Kachynski
authors.forename: Andrey N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Kuzmin
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Ackerman
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Twombly
authors.forename: Taewoo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Rahul P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Trivedi
authors.forename: Paras N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Prasad
mesh_terms: D055119:Elastic Modulus; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*