Color changing and lasing stretchable cholesteric films

Abstract

Polymer materials able to change reflective properties due to mechanical deformation fundamentally challenge the theory of soft materials and are important for a number of emerging applications. The most promising of those are chiral lasers. In this communication, we report novel cholesteric materials that display large color change from far red to blue and a shift of the position of the selective reflection band under uniaxial strain from near infrared to ultraviolet. Optical pumping of these materials which are doped with laser dyes, leads to lasing at the wavelengths controlled by strain within the emission interval of laser dyes of 80 nm.