Propagation of the Ultra-Short Laser Pulses Through the Helical 1D Photonic Crystal Structure with Twist Defect

Abstract

The presence of the photonic band-gap is a featured property of the cholesteric liquid crystals (CLC). It can be practically realized for almost any reasonable wavelengths with very high degree of tunability. We have investigated theoretically the influence of the twist defect of the CLC helical structure onto the bandwidth-limited ultra-short laser pulse propagating inside the photonic band-gap. The changes of both pulse duration and peak power with defect angle were observed together with pulse acceleration and retardation for a case of normal incidence of the light.