This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9565 including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Authors, and Conference Committee listing.

Light-driven micro-particles (MPs) were prepared by modification of photo-responsive azobenzene(Azo) groups as molecular motors. In a nematic liquid crystal, 5CB, we have achieved remote control of the Azo-modified MPs (Azo/MPs), which constructed with glass spheres (GSs) or rod-like glass particles (GRs) as MPs, by light stimuli. As results of photo-induced isomerization from UV-visible extinction spectroscopy and from phase evaluation under microscope observation, the motion behavior suggest to be correlated with the generation of micro-sized isotropic phase (I-phase) regions, which could be caused by disorganization of the 5CB molecules in the nematic phase (N-phase) due to photo-induced continuous isomerization of Azo groups.

Adaptive holographic interferometry allows measuring small optical phase modulations even in noisy environ- ments and with strongly distorted optical wavefronts. We report examples of adaptive holographic systems based on liquid crystals, such as optically addressed liquid crystal spatial light modulator and digital holography with an LCOS spatial light modulator.

The light-induced deformation of two-component polymer networks with liquid crystalline (LC) mesogens and azobenzene chromophores attached covalently to the network strands is theoretically studied. It is shown that preferential reorientation of chromophores perpendicular to the polarization direction of the light E leads to the reorientation of the mesogens due to LC interactions between the chromophores and mesogens. Reorientation of both components under light illumination leads to the light-induced deformation of the polymer network. The sign of deformation (expansion / contraction with respect to the vector E) and the magnitude of deformation is determined by the orientation distribution of the mesogens and chromophores inside the network strands. The magnitude of deformation increases with increase of the volume fraction of chromophores and the strength of LC interactions between the components.

We have investigated the mechanisms responsible for nonlinear optical processes occurring in azobenzene-doped blue phase liquid crystals (BPLC), which exhibit two thermodynamically stable BPs: BPI and BPII. In coherent two wave-mixing experiments, a slow (minutes) and a fast (few milliseconds) side diffractions are observed. The underlying mechanisms were disclosed by monitoring the dynamics of grating formation and relaxation as well as by some supplementary experiments. We found the photothermal indexing and dye/LC intermolecular torque leading to lattice distortion to be the dominant mechanisms for the observed nonlinear response in BPLC. Moreover, the response time of the nonlinear optical process varied with operating phase. The rise time of the thermal indexing process was in good agreement with our findings on the temperature dependence of BP refractive index: τ(ISO) > τ(BPI) > τ(BPII). The relaxation time of the torque-induced lattice distortion was analogue to its electrostriction counterpart: τ'(BPI) > τ'(BPII). In a separate experiment, lattice swelling with selective reflection of <110> direction changed from green to red was also observed. This was attributable to the isomerization-induced change in cholesteric pitch, which directly affects the lattice spacing. The phenomenon was confirmed by measuring the optical rotatory power of the BPLC.

In recent years, complex optical fields with spatially inhomogeneous phases, polarizations and optical singularities have drawn many research interests. Many novel effects have been predicted and demonstrated for light beams with these unconventional states in both linear and nonlinear optics regimes. Although local optical phase could be controlled directly or through hologram structures in isotropic materials such as glasses, optical anisotropy is still required for manipulating polarization states and wavelengths. The anisotropy could be either intrinsic such as in crystals/liquid crystals (LCs) or the induced birefringence from dielectric or metallic structures. In this talk, we will briefly review some of our attempts in tailoring complex optical fields via anisotropic microstructures. We developed a micro-photo-patterning system that could generate complex micro-images then further guides the arbitrary local LC directors. Due to the electro-optically (EO) tunable anisotropy of LC, various reconfigurable complex optical fields such as optical vortices (OVs), multiplexed OVs, OV array, Airy beams and vector beams are obtained. Different LC modes such as homogeneous alignment nematic, hybrid alignment nematic and even blue phase LCs are adopted to optimize the static and dynamic beam characteristics depending on application circumstances. We are also trying to extend our approaches to new wavelength bands, such as mid-infrared and even THz ranges. Some preliminary results are obtained. In addition, based on our recently developed local poling techniques for ferroelectric crystals, we will also discuss and demonstrate the nonlinear complex optical field conversion in Lithium Niobate wafers with patterned ferroelectric domain structures.

Liquid crystal is a representative soft matter, which has physical properties between those of conventional liquid and those of crystal in a temperature range above a melting point. A liquid-crystal display (LCD) employs the response of the liquid-crystal alignment to the electric field and is a key device of an information display. For common LCDs, the precise control of the initial alignment of LC molecules is needed so that a good dark state, thus a high contrast ratio, can be obtained. If the birefringence can be induced in the liquid phase by the application of electric field, it is of great use as a material for the LCD application. In this study, we will report a unique property of dichiral azobenzene liquid crystals: an electric induction of birefringence in a liquid phase of an antiferroelectric dichiral azobenzene liquid crystal. The optically isotropic texture changes into the homogenous birefringent texture by the application of the in-plane electric field above the clearing temperature of the liquid crystal. We find that one of the possible reasons of the induction of the birefringence in the isotropic phase is the electrically-induced increase of the phase transition temperature between the antiferroelectric liquid-crystalline and “liquid” phases, i.e., increase in the clearing temperature. The resulting birefringence can be disappeared by the irradiation of UV light, due to the photoinduced isomerization of the azobenzene compound, thus dual control of the birefringent structure, by the irradiation of light and/or by the application of the electric field, is achieved.

Soft matters such as liquid crystals and biological molecules exhibit a variety of interesting physical phenomena as well as new applications. Recently, in mimicking biological systems that have the ability to sense, regulate, grow, react, and regenerate in a highly responsive and self-adaptive manner, the significance of the liquid crystal order in living organisms, for example, a biological membrane possessing the lamellar order, is widely recognized from the viewpoints of physics and chemistry of interfaces and membrane biophysics. Lipid bilayers, resembling cell membranes, provide primary functions for the transport of biological components of ions and molecules in various cellular activities, including vesicle budding and membrane fusion, through lateral organization of the membrane components such as proteins. In this lecture, I will describe how the liquid crystal-analog curvature elasticity of a lipid bilayer plays a critical role in developing a new platform for understanding diverse biological functions at a cellular level. The key concept is to manipulate the local curvature at an interface between a solid substrate and a model membrane. Two representative examples will be demonstrated: one of them is the topographic control of lipid rafts in a combinatorial array where the ligand-receptor binding event occurs and the other concerns the reconstitution of a ring-type lipid raft in bud-mimicking architecture within the framework of the curvature elasticity.

Optical light modulation in photorefractive liquid crystal cells depends strongly on the relative voltage drop across the photoconductive and liquid crystal layers. This quantity can be estimated using the Voltage Transfer Function, a generalization of the standard cross polarized intensity measurements. Another advantage of this new measurement technique is that we can use it to estimate dynamical parameters of the liquid crystal and of the device, either through simple black-box models or using a full Ericksen-Leslie theory. In this latter case we can obtain estimates of some of the viscosities of the liquid crystal.

We describe the underlying theories and experimental demonstrations of passive temperature stabilization of silicon photonic devices clad in nematic liquid crystal mixtures, and active optical tuning of silicon photonic resonant structures combined with dye-doped nematic and blue phase liquid crystals. We show how modifications to the resonator device geometry allow for not only enhanced tuning of the resonator response, but also aid in achieving complete athermal operations of silicon photonic circuits. [Ref.: I.C. Khoo, "DC-field-assisted grating formation and nonlinear diffractions in methyl-red dye-doped blue phase liquid crystals," Opt. Lett. 40, 60-63 (2015); J. Ptasinski, I.C. Khoo, and Y. Fainman, "Enhanced optical tuning of modified-geometry resonators clad in blue phase liquid crystals," Opt. Lett. 39, 5435-5438 (2014); J. Ptasinski, I.C. Khoo, and Y. Fainman, "Passive Temperature Stabilization of Silicon Photonic Devices Using Liquid Crystals," Materials 7(3), 2229-2241 (2014)].

Nonlinear optics has drawn much attention for its great potential in applications, such as frequency conversion, multiple-photon absorption, self-focusing, and so on. However, such optical nonlinearities are generally observed at very high light intensities. In this study, we designed hybrid-aligned dye-doped polymer-stabilized liquid crystals (PSLC), in which the molecular director orientation gradually changes from homeotropic at one surface to homogeneous at the other. In such film, the threshold intensity required to form self-focusing effect was markedly reduced by a factor of 8.5 compared to that in a conventional homeotropic cell, which enabled the generation of the self-focusing effect using a handheld 1-mW laser pointer. In addition, we investigated the structural effect of dye molecules: azo-dye methyl red (MR, photoisomerizable)-doped PSLC was prepared and its NLO response was evaluated. It turned out that such MR-based LC system was not effective for self-focusing effect compared to oligothiophene-doped systems.

Cholesteric liquid crystals with helicoidal molecular architecture are known for their ability to selectively reflect light with the wavelength that is determined by the periodicity of molecular orientations. Resulting interference colors are highly saturated, they add like colored lights and produce a color gamut greater than that obtained with inks, dyes, and pigments. The periodicity of the helical structure and thus the wavelength of the reflected light can be controlled by chemical composition and sometimes by temperature, but tuning with the electric field has been so far elusive. Here we demonstrate that by using a cholesteric with oblique helicoidal (heliconical) structure, as opposed to the classic “right-angle” helicoid, one can vary the wavelength of selectively reflected light in a broad spectral range, by simply adjusting the electric field applied parallel to the helicoidal axis. The effect can enable many applications that require dynamically controlled transmission and reflection of light, from energy-saving smart windows to tunable organic lasers, and transparent “see-through” displays. Since the material is non-absorbing and transparent everywhere except the electrically preselected reflection band, the effect can be used in creating multilayered structures with a dynamic additive mixture of colors.

With ZnSe thin films as aligning layers in fabricating liquid crystal (LC) panel with pentylcyanobiphenyl doped with C₆₀, the response time in writing holograms was shortened to milliseconds. When two laser beams were overlapped in an LC panel, 2D diffraction patterns were observed, along with exponential gain coefficient highly LC and ZnSe thickness dependent. In addition, energy transferring in subwavelength scale through surface grating was evident. By using a hybrid LC panel, it was found the energy transferring direction was voltage polarity and thickness dependent. Electrostatic modification based surface plasmon polariton excitation was proposed to explain all the findings

We studied the photo-induced dynamics in a LC polymer film including azobenzene by using a time-resolved and a microscopic technique. The film was confined in a liquid crystal cell, while it is a photomobile film under a free standing condition, which is triggered by the photoisomerization of azobenezene. From the result of the time-resolved measurements, the change inside the film induced by UV irradiation was highly anisotropic polarization change. Microscopic observation revealed that the film was consisted of ordered and disordered region with a patched structure, and the UV induced change was travelled in the ordered region on the order of seconds.

The thermoelectric effect, also known as the Seebeck effect, describes the conversion of a temperature gradient into electricity. A Figure of Merit (ZT) is used to describe the thermoelectric ability of a material. It is directly dependent on its Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity, and inversely dependent on its thermal conductivity. There is usually a compromise between these parameters, which limit the performance of thermoelectric materials. The current achievement for ZT~2.2 falls short of the expected threshold of ZT=3 to allow its viability in commercial applications. In recent times, advances in organic thermoelectrics been significant, improving by over 3 orders of magnitude over a period of about 10 years. Liquid crystals are newly investigated as candidate thermoelectric materials, given their low thermal conductivity, inherent ordering, and in some cases, reasonable electrical conductivity. In this work the thermoelectric behaviour of a discotic liquid crystal, is discussed. The DLC was filled into cells coated with a charge injector, and an alignment of the columnar axis perpendicular to the substrate was allowed to form. This thermoelectric behavior can be correlated to the order-disorder transition. A reasonable thermoelectric power in the liquid crystal temperature regime was noted. In summary, thermoelectric liquid crystals may have the potential to be utilised in flexible devices, as a standalone power source.

We have developed a bistable negative lens by integrating a polarization switch of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) with a passively anisotropic focusing element. The proposed lens not only exhibits electrically tunable bistability but also fast response time of sub-milliseconds, which leads to good candidate of optical component in optical system for medical applications. In this paper, we demonstrate an optical system consisting of two FLC phase retarders and one LC lenses that exhibits both of electrically tunable wavelength and size of exposure area. The operating principles and the experimental results are discussed. The tunable spectrum, exposure area size and tunable irradiance are illustrated. Compared to conventional lenses with mechanical movements in the medical light therapy system, our electrically switchable optical system is more practical in the portable applications of light therapy (LLLT).

Using self-induced vortex-like defects in the nematic liquid crystal layer of a light valve with photo-sensible wall, we demonstrate the realization of programable optical vortices lattices with arbitrary configuration in space. On each lattice site, every matter vortex acts as a photonic spin-to-orbital momentum coupler and an array of circularly polarized input beams is converted into an output array of vortex beams with topological charges consistent with the vortex matter lattice. The vortex arrangements are explained the basis of light-induced matter defects and topological rules.

Liquid crystal (LC) is an amazing class of electro-optic media; its applications span from visible to infrared, millimeter wave, and terahertz regions. In the visible and short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) regions, most LCs are highly transparent. However, to extend the electro-optic application of LCs into MWIR and LWIR, several key technical challenges have to be overcome: (1) low absorption loss, (2) high birefringence, (3) low operation voltage, and (4) fast response time. In the MWIR and LWIR regions, several fundamental molecular vibration bands and overtones exist, which contribute to high absorption loss. The absorbed light turns to heat and then alters the birefringence locally, which in turns causes spatially non-uniform phase modulation. To suppress the optical loss, several approaches have been investigated: (1) Employing thin cell gap by choosing a high birefringence LC mixture; (2) Shifting the absorption bands outside the spectral region of interest by deuteration, fluorination, or chlorination; (3) Reducing the overtone absorption by using a short alkyl chain. In this paper, we report some recently developed chlorinated LC compounds and mixtures with low absorption loss in the SWIR and MWIR regions. To achieve fast response time, we demonstrated a polymer network liquid crystal with 2π phase change at MWIR and response time less than 5 ms. Approaches to extend such a liquid crystal spatial light modulator to long-wavelength infrared will be discussed.

Nametic liquid crystals (NLC) are most commonly used liquid crystal (LC) materials in various light modulators [1], displays [2] and lenses [3]. However those materials have a fundamental limitation: they are polarization sensitive since the refractive index modulation here is achieved by the electric field induced reorientation of their local anisotropy axis. Thus, the standard imaging optical systems (used in consumer electronic products and dealing with natural light sources [4]) have to use double NLC structures in a cross oriented way and in rather requiring geometrical conditions. We describe a simple but very efficient optical device that allows the dynamic focusing of unpolarized light using a single NLC layer. The operation principle of the proposed device is based on the combination of an electrically variable “single layer lens” with two fixed optical elements for light reflection and 90 polarization flip. Such an approach is made possible thanks to the close integration of thin film wave plate and mirror. Preliminary experimental studies of the obtained electrically variable mirror show very promising results. Several standard camera geometries, using the double layer approach, and possible new geometries, using the reflective approach, will be described. References 1. Gordon D. Love, Wave-front correction and production of Zernike modes with a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator, Applied Optics, Vol. 36, Issue 7, pp. 1517-1524 (1997). 2. P. Yeh and C. Gu, Optics of Liquid Crystal Displays, Wiley, 1999. 3. T. Galstian, Smart Mini-Cameras, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis group, 2013. 4. www.lensvector.com

We synthesized small-angle bent-core liquid-crystalline (LC) molecules based on a 1,2-bis(phenylethylene) benzene central core, containing seven aromatic rings and alkoxy tails with carbon numbers of 12, 16 and 18. This ortho-bistolane central core offers a 60° bend angle. Irrespective of this unusually small angle, these molecules can form banana smectic phases with a ferroelectric B7-antiferroelectric B2 phase sequence upon cooling as clarified from the micoscopic, X-ray and opto-electric observations. This indicates that despite of the low bend angle of 60°, these are able to be still packed into a layer with the polar bent direction parallel to the layer like ordinal banana molecules. The present result is striking since it had been believed that banana phases can only be stabilized when the bending angle is in the range from 110-140°, providing additional insight into the nature of banana-shaped molecules.

We study nonlinear performances of doped liquid crystals employing azo dye (DR1) and quantum dots. The nonlinear mechanisms include thermal effect, space-charge induced electric field, photo-isomerization, and optical-field induced molecular polarization. Our preliminary investigations reveal that these doped liquid crystals are dominated by different nonlinear mechanisms. In particular, we find that For dye-doped LC, the response time is generally robust to temperature variation but the diffraction efficiency is temperature-sensitive. Whereas, the QD-doped LC remains robust for both characteristics around room temperature. We also demonstrate dynamic holographic displays using these doped liquid crystals at a video rate of 60 Hz.

The chiral nematic liquid crystal (N*-LC) has plenty of prospective applications in LC display (LCD) owing to the selective reflection and circular dichroism. The molecules in the N*-LC are aligned forming a helically twisted structure and the specific wavelength of incident light is reflected by the periodically varying refractive index in the N*-LC plane without the aid of a polarizer or color filter. However, N*-LC do not emit light which restricts its application in the dark environment. Moreover, the view angle of N*-LC display device was severe limited due to the strong viewing angle dependence of the structure color of the one dimensional photonic crystal of a N*-LC. In order to overcome these weaknesses, we have synthesized a luminescent liquid crystalline compound consisting of a tetraphenylethene (TPE) core, TPE-PPE, as a luminogen with mesogenic moieties. TPE-PPE exhibits both the aggregate-induced emission (AIE) and thermotropic liquid crystalline characteristics. By dissolving a little amount of TPE-PPE into N*-LC host, a circular polarized emission was obtained on the unidirectional orientated LC cell. Utilizing the circular polarized luminescence property of the LC mixture, we fabricated a photoluminescent liquid crystal display (PL-LCD) device which can work under both dark and sunlit conditions. This approach has simplified the device design, lowered the energy consumption and increased brightness and application of the LCD.

Photoalignment technology based on optically switchable “command surfaces” has been receiving increasing interest for liquid crystal optics and photonics device applications. Azobenzene compounds in the form of low-molar-mass, watersoluble salts deposited either directly on the substrate surface or after dispersion in a polymer binder have been almost exclusively employed for these applications, and ongoing research in the area follows a largely empirical materials design and development approach. Recent computational chemistry advances now afford unprecedented opportunities to develop predictive capabilities that will lead to new photoswitchable alignment layer materials with low switching energies, enhanced bistability, write/erase fatigue resistance, and high laser-damage thresholds. In the work described here, computational methods based on the density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory were employed to study the impact of molecular structure on optical switching properties in photoswitchable methacrylate and acrylamide polymers functionalized with azobenzene and spiropyran pendants.

Blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) are self-assembled 3D photonic crystals exhibiting high susceptibility to external stimuli. Two methods for the photonic bandgap tuning of BPs were demonstrated in this work. Introducing a chiral azobenzene into a cholesteric liquid crystal could formulate a photoresponsive BPLC. Under violet irradiation, the azo dye experiences trans-cis isomerization, which leads to lattice swelling as well as phase transition in different stages of the process. Ultrawide reversible tuning of the BP photonic bandgap from ultraviolet to near infrared has been achieved. The tuning is reversible and nonvolatile. We will then demonstract the electric field-induced bandgap tuning in polymer-stabilized BPLCs. Under different BPLCs material preparation conditions, both red-shift and broadening of the photonic bandgaps have been achieved respectively. The stop band can be shifted over 100 nm. The bandwidth can be expanded from ~ 30 nm to ~ 250 nm covering nearly the full visible range. It is believed that the developed approaches could strongly promote the use of BPLC in photonic applications.

Liquid crystal (LC) director distributions and optical phase profiles in LC micro-lens-array (LC-MLA) are studied by using a three-dimensional (3D) numerical calculation method. The LC-MLA design employs twodivided and tetragonally-patterned electrode structure in a flat nematic LC cell. The possibilities of prism and lenslike phase difference distributions in the rectangular aperture region of the LC-MLA are discussed. The LC molecular orientation distributions in the rectangular region can be estimated and its phase profile can be predicted fairly well by the calculations.

Geometrical constrains and intrinsic chirality in nematic mesophases enable formation of stable and metastable complex defect structures. Recently selected knotted and linked disclinations have been formed using laser manipulation of nematic braids entangling colloidal particles in nematic colloids [Tkalec et al., Science 2011; Copar et al., PNAS 2015]. In unwinded chiral nematic phases stable and metastable toron and hopfion defects have been implemented by laser tweezers [Smalyukh et al., Nature Materials 2010; Chen et al., PRL2013] and in chiral nematic colloids particles dressed by solitonic deformations [Porenta et al., Sci. Rep. 2014]. Modelling studies based on the numerical minimisation of the phenomenological free energy, supported with the adapted topological theory [Copar and Zumer, PRL 2011; Copar, Phys. Rep. 2014] allow describing the observed nematic defect structures and also predicting numerous structures in confined blue phases [Fukuda and Zumer, Nature Comms 2011 and PRL 2011] and stable knotted disclinations in cholesteric droplets with homeotropic boundary [Sec et al., Nature Comms 2014]. Coupling the modeling with finite difference time domain light field computation enables understanding of light propagation and light induced restructuring in these mesophases. The method was recently demonstrated for the description of low intensity light beam changes during the propagation along disclination lines [Brasselet et al., PRL 2009; Cancula et al., PRE 2014]. Allowing also high intensity light an order restructuring is induced [Porenta et al., Soft Matter 2012; Cancula et al., 2015]. These approaches help to uncover the potential of topological structures for beyond-display optical and photonic applications.

Confocal laser-scanning microscopy is a well-known optical imaging method where a pinhole is used in the illumination and detection pathways of a normal microscope, in order to selectively excite and detect a particular focal volume. The advantage of this method is a significant increase in contrast, due to the rejection of background contributions to the signal. Here, we propose to apply this method in the context of multimode fiber endoscopy. Due to modal scrambling, it is not possible to use a physical pinhole to filter light signals that have travel through multimode fibers. Instead, we use a transmission matrix approach to characterize the propagation of light through the fiber, and we apply the filtering operation in the digital domain.

The helical nanofilament (HNF) liquid crystal phase is a member of an unusual class of thermotropic phases with lamellar structures dominated by a tendency towards developing negative Gaussian curvature of the layers. Members of this family are sometimes termed “dark conglomerates,” due to their behavior in polarized light microscopy. These include a fluid phases - the high temperature dark conglomerate phase, which is a kind of sponge phase, and the low temperature dark conglomerate phase, also seemingly a sponge phase with structural details currently under investigation. The HNF phase, also a “dark conglomerate,” seems to be unique in the family, since slow conformational dynamics indicate a quasi-crystalline structure within layers, but no long range positional correlations across layers. We have been exploring possible applications of the HNF phase, which is highly porous, as a host for the formation of alignable composites for photovoltaics and other organic semiconductor applications. Recent results regarding the structure of these composites, including data suggesting a remarkably elegant nanostructure for HNF-chiral nematic composites, will be discussed.

The texture observation has long been the core technique in liquid crystal (LC)-based biosensing. One of the drawbacks of this observational means is the difficulty in quantitative analysis. In this invited paper, we report on our recent attempt to improve the LC-based biosensing technique through the analysis of bovine serum albumin (BSA), a protein standard commonly used in the assay of protein concentration. We propose to overcome the technical limitations in the analysis of LC-based biosensors by considering alternative measuring schemes. By means of the induced changes in electro-optical properties of LCs in the presence of different concentrations of BSA, novel quantitative techniques specific for LC-based biosensors are developed.

Natural or “self” alignment of molecular complexes in living tissue represents many similarities with liquid crystals (LC), which are anisotropic liquids. The orientational characteristics of those complexes may be related to many important functional parameters and their study may reveal important pathologies. The know-how, accumulated thanks to the study of LC materials, may thus be used to this end. One of the traditionally used methods, to characterize those materials, is the polarized light imaging (PLI) that allows for label-free analysis of anisotropic structures in the brain tissue and can be used, for example, for the analysis of myelinated fiber bundles. In the current work, we first attempted to apply the PLI on the mouse histological brain sections to create a map of anisotropic structures using cross-polarizer transmission light. Then we implemented the PLI for comparative study of histological sections of human postmortem brain samples under normal and pathological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD). Imaging the coronal, sagittal and horizontal sections of mouse brain allowed us to create a false color-coded fiber orientation map under polarized light. In human brain datasets for both control and PD groups we measured the pixel intensities in myelin-rich subregions of internal capsule and normalized these to non-myelinated background signal from putamen and caudate nucleus. Quantification of intensities revealed a statistically significant reduction of fiber intensity of PD compared to control subjects (2.801 ± 0.303 and 3.724 ± 0.07 respectively; *p < 0.05). Our study confirms the validity of PLI method for visualizing myelinated axonal fibers. This relatively simple technique can become a promising tool for study of neurodegenerative diseases where labeling-free imaging is an important benefit.

We present new lenses – waveplate lenses created in liquid crystal materials. Waveplate lenses allowed focusing and defocusing laser beam depending on the sign of the circularity of laser beam polarization. Using an electrically-switchable liquid-crystal half-wave retarder we realized switching between focused and defocused beams by the waveplate lens. A combination of two such lenses allowed the collimation of a laser beam as well as the change of focal length of optical system. Lenses of varied size and focal length are presented.

Liquid crystal (LC) lasers have gained a lot of research interest in the last decade. Especially out-of-plane emitting chiral nematic liquid crystal (CLC) lasers have been studied extensively. These regular CLC lasers have a one-dimensional (1D) structure and the active cavity length is inherently limited. By using CLCs in two- and three-dimensional structures, the flexibility and applicability of the laser structures can be strongly enhanced. In this paper we focus on 2D in-plane emitting CLC lasers with a lying helix structure. We elaborate further on different techniques to obtain the lying helix structure and we analyze the lasing properties and compare these to regular 1D out-of-plane emitting CLC and NLC lasers. Both differences in emission spectrum, laser threshold, slope efficiency and maximal output energy are discussed.

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By exploiting Metamaterials (MTMs) and Photonic Quasi-Crystals (PQCs), it is possible to realize man-made structures characterized by a selective EM response, which can be also controlled by combining the distinctive properties of reconfigurable soft-matter. By finely controlling lattice parameters of a given photonic structure, it is possible to optimize its extraction characteristics at a precise wavelength, or minimize the extraction of undesired modes. In general, however, once a structure is realized, its extraction properties cannot be varied. To cross this problem, it is possible to combine capabilities offered by both MTMs and PQCs with the reconfigurable properties of smart materials, such as Liquid Crystals (LCs); in this way, a completely new class of “reconfigurable metamaterials” (R-MTM) can be realized. We report here on the realization and characterization of a switchable photonic device, working in the visible range, based on nanostructured photonic quasi-crystals, layered with an azodye-doped nematic LC (NLC). The experimental characterization shows that its filtering effect is remarkable with its extraction spectra which can be controlled by applying an external voltage or by means of a laser light. The vertical extraction of the light, by the coupling of the modes guided by the PQC slab to the free radiation via Bragg scattering, consists of an extremely narrow orange emission band at 621 nm with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 8 nm. In our opinion, these results represent a breakthrough in the realization of innovative MTMs based active photonic devices such as tunable MTMs or reconfigurable lasers and active filters.

The cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) cells are fabricated by varying the concentration of various chiral dopants and liquid crystal (LC) diacrylate monomers. The wavelength and bandwidth of selective reflection spectrum in CLC cells are measured by a spectroscopic technique. The variation of the selective reflection spectrum in CLC cells is investigated by doping the different kinds of liquid crystal (LC) diacrylate monomers which stabilize a helical twisting structure by photopolymerization. The effects of the selective reflection spectrum on the visible and infrared lights in spectral solar irradiance are explained by the performance for a solar-ray controller based on the spectral solar irradiance for air mass 1.5 and the standard luminous efficiency function for photopic vision.

We propose a low-driving-voltage multifocal liquid crystal (LC) lens such as a concave lens inside a convex lens. The multifocal LC lens is prepared using a glass substrate with a transparent circularly hole-patterned electrode, an additional ring electrode inside, and a center electrode. The multifocal lens properties are attained, and the focal length of the concave lens and/or convex lens can be changed by applying low voltages to the electrodes.

We develop a three-dimensional imaging system by using a low-voltage-driving liquid crystal (LC) lens for determining depth mapping properties of three-dimensional objects. The sequential photo images without the magnification and reduction are taken by electrically controlling a focal plane along a depth direction with no mechanical movements. The depth mapping properties can be obtained by processing an image digital filter from the different focal images.

We have found experimentally the transmittance of normal incident circularly polarized light due to new chiral mixture that was distorted by electric field. The chiral mixture was achieved by mixtures of two nematic liquid crystals (5OCB and 5CB) and S-1-bromo-2-methylbutane. We have found a regime of circular Bragg diffraction for certain values of concentrations and thickness. Optical diffraction phenomenon have received particular attention in research for optical and electro-optical applications, such as low –voltage modulators, reflective phase gratings and smart reflectors.

Motion blur is one of the major factors decreasing the image quality of a hand-held optical imaging system while the system is under shakes or vibrations during exposure. Optical image stabilization (OIS) is a technique to reduce such a blurring. The basic principle of OIS is to stabilize the recorded image in a camera by varying the optical path to the sensor under vibrations during exposure. In this paper, we demonstrate optical image stabilization (OIS) for an imaging system using a droplet manipulation on a liquid crystal and polymer composite film (LCPCF) that reduces the motion blur. The mechanism is based on manipulation of position of the liquid lens on LCPCF by means of electrically adjusting orientations of liquid crystals. The change of the position of the liquid lens compensates the deviation of light when the image system is under a handshake vibration. Therefore, the imaging system forms a clear image with a droplet on different position to overcome handshake vibration. The concept in this paper can also be extended to design other optical components for modulating the direction of light.

Thermodielectric effect in dual-frequency cholesteric liquid crystals (DFCLCs) is an important issue and has rarely been studied in the past. DFCLC materials have many applications such as fast-switching CLCs, light modulators, and tunable photonic devices. However, DFCLCs characteristically need high operation voltage, which hinders their further development in thin-film-transistor operation. Here we present a lower-voltage switching method based on thermodielectric effect. Dielectric heating effect entails applying an electromagnetic wave to occasion dielectric oscillation heating so to induce the increase in crossover frequency. The subsequent change in dielectric anisotropy of the DFCLC permits the switching, with a lower voltage, from the planar state to the focal conic or homeotropic state. Furthermore, we also demonstrate the local deformation of the CLC helical structure achieved by means of the thermodielectric effect. The wavelength of the deformation-induced defect mode can be tuned upon varying the dielectric heating power. The physics and the calculation of dielectric heating in DFCLCs are described.