The spread of wearable devices is pushing the need for compact photonic elements with advanced light control functionality and recent development show, that Blue Phase (BP) liquid crystals have a promising future in such photonic devices. The project aims to obtain large 3D photonic crystals based BP liquid crystal structures, with controlled crystal orientation and photonic properties designed for topologically protected spatial lasing, light switching, and holography.
This project is a joint effort focusing on:
(i) understanding the alignment mechanism of BPs through the development of new materials,
(ii) preparing large 3D photonic crystals based on BPs,
(iii) applying new materials in actual photonic devices: a laser microcavity, an all-optical tunable crystal, and a holographic element.
The project is truly interdisciplinary as the research teams, consisting of material scientists (PL), chemists and physicists (CZ) and external collaborators applied physicists (JP) will pursue new materials and ideas to develop protocols to direct self-assembly of BP photonic crystals on demand.