Electrically tunable spin-orbit coupled photonic lattice in a liquid crystal microcavity
Abstract
We create a one-dimensional photonic crystal with strong polarization dependence and tunable by an applied electric field. We accomplish this in a planar microcavity by embedding a cholesteric liquid crystal (LC), which spontaneously forms a uniform lying helix (ULH). The applied voltage controls the orientation of the LC molecules and, consequently, the strength of a polarization-dependent periodic potential. It leads to opening or closing of photonic band gaps in the dispersion of the massive photons in the microcavity. In addition, when the ULH structure possesses a molecular tilt, it induces a spin-orbit coupling between the lattice bands of different parity. This interband spin-orbit coupling (ISOC) is analogous to optical activity and can be treated as a synthetic non-Abelian gauge potential. Finally, we show that doping the LC with dyes allows us to achieve lasing that inherits all the above-mentioned tunable properties of LC microcavity, including dual and circularly-polarized lasing.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- July 2024
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2407.07161
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2407.07161
- Bibcode:
- 2024arXiv240707161M
- Keywords:
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- Physics - Optics;
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter