Surface plasmon-enhanced lasing in dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystals

This study shows the results of a photonic band-edge laser using dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) combined with silver (Ag) nanoparticles. When the Ag nanoparticle surface plasmon resonance wavelength matched the excitation source wavelength, the large optical fields provided by surface plasmons increased the fluorescence of dye molecules by enhancing the molecular excitation rate, achieving a low lasing threshold and high pumping efficiency.