Defect mode lasing from a double-layered dye-doped polymeric cholesteric liquid crystal films with a thin rubbed defect layer

The authors have demonstrated defect mode lasing emission from a spin-coated double-layered dye-doped polymeric cholesteric liquid crystal (PCLC) films with a thin rubbed isotropic layer in between. The rubbed layer acts not only as an alignment layer for the second PCLC layer but also as an isotropic defect layer breaking periodicity of PCLC films. All the processes can be achieved in a wet process. Because of the process, the present polymeric solid-state laser is available as a freestanding thin film of only 5.5 mu m in thickness and an almost limitless large area, which enable one to use it as a disposable laser chip of any shapes. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.