Photonic eigenmodes of 2D cylindrical cholesteric liquid crystal resonators

Mur, Urban (author), Zaplotnik, Jaka (author), Horvat, Martin (author), Muševič, Igor (author), Ravnik, Miha (author)

Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) are birefringent materials with a helical molecular orientation that enables the selective reflection of circularly polarized light, making them valuable for various optical applications. While extensively studied in planar geometries, their optical properties in cylindrical and droplet-shaped confinements remain less understood. This article numerically investigates photonic eigenmodes in 2D cylindrical CLC resonators with concentric layered and spiral configurations. We demonstrate that the interplay of cylindrical confinement and cholesteric helicity gives rise to distinct optical modes: (i) Bragg-like modes, (ii) central defect modes, and (iii) whispering gallery modes at the boundary or within the bulk. These findings connect the well-known behavior of 1D CLC layers with more complex 2D cylindrical and 3D spherical systems and provide insight into the polarization-dependent mode structure in anisotropic media. The results have implications for designing advanced CLC-based photonic elements such as soft-matter-based lasers and spherical reflectors.

• Language: English
• Keywords: photonics, cholesteric liquid crystals, optical resonators, optical eigenmodes, resonators, spectrum, chemical looping combustion, chemical structure, defects, electric fields, electrical conductivity, lasers, layers, liquid crystals, optical properties
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 5572–5585
• Numbering: Vol. 12, iss. 10
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176581
• UDC: 535:538.9
• ISSN on article: 2330-4022
• DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.5c01294
• COBISS.SI-ID: 251245059
• Publication date in RUL: 04.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: ACS photonics
• Shortened title: ACS photonics
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• ISSN: 2330-4022
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520397849

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: fotonika, holesterični tekoči kristali, optični resonatorji, lastni načini