Electrically tunable polarization of random lasing from dye-doped nematic liquid crystals

Tunable polarizing direction of random lasing emission by an applied electric field which radiated from the lateral end face of homogeneously aligned, dye-doped nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cell was demonstrated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The lasing emission was partially polarized in the direction along the director of the NLC without the applied electric field. By tuning the applied electric field, the NLC director could be rotated to arbitrary direction from homogeneous to homeotropic alignment, resulting in the polarizing direction of lasing emission to any direction from parallel to perpendicular to the substrate surface in the end face.