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Updated: Oct 11, 2025

Free-form Light Actuators — Fabrication and Control of Actuation in Microscopic Scale

Free-form Light Actuators — Fabrication and Control of Actuation in Microscopic Scale

Published on: May 25, 2016

Topological liquid crystal superstructures as structured light lasers.

Miha Papič¹, Urban Mur², Kottoli Poyil Zuhail¹

¹Department of Condensed Matter Physics, J. Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|December 2, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers created tunable microlasers from liquid crystal (LC) superstructures. These soft matter lasers emit structured light, offering new possibilities in photonics.

Keywords:

liquid crystals microlaser topological structures vector beams

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Area of Science:

Soft matter photonics
Liquid crystal (LC) technology
Topological photonics

Background:

Liquid crystals (LCs) exhibit rich self-assembled topological structures and defects.
LCs offer unique properties like self-assembly, tunability, and stimuli-responsiveness for photonic devices.
Soft photonic systems differ fundamentally from solid-state counterparts.

Purpose of the Study:

To demonstrate tunable microlasers emitting structured light from self-assembled LC superstructures.
To explore the role of LC topology and geometry in light structuring.
To investigate electric field switching and temperature tuning of microlaser properties.

Main Methods:

Fabrication of thin Fabry-Pérot microcavities incorporating topological LC superstructures.
Utilizing the inherent optical axis and order parameter singularities of LCs to structure emitted light.
Employing electric fields for mode switching and temperature for wavelength tuning.

Main Results:

Generation of complex tunable microlasers from topological LC superstructures.
Demonstration that LC topology and geometry dictate light structuring, including polarization.
Successful electric field switching and temperature-based wavelength tuning of the microlaser.

Conclusions:

Self-assembled topological LC superstructures can generate structured light in a soft matter microlaser.
This approach offers a new platform for designing tailored intensity and polarization fields in soft matter photonics.
The tunable, stimuli-responsive nature of LC microlasers opens new avenues in photonic device research.