We review recent experiments on the fast and ultrafast all-optical control of light in bulk nematic and smectic-A liquid crystals. Ultrafast optical control at sub-picosecond time scalecan be achieved via the optical Kerr response of a nematic liquid crystal. We show that the refractive index changes are of the order of 10-4 in 5CB nematic liquid crystal and can be optically induced by applying 100 fs pulses of 4 mJ/cm2 fluence. We discuss stimulated emission depletion of fluorescence in a smectic-A liquid crystal and demonstrate nanosecond light control of fluorescent pulse shaping. Both methods could be applied to control light by light in future photonic devices based on liquid crystals.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 30414119Igor Muševič presented this invited talk at the symposium Light and Matter : infinite challenges, 3-4 December 2015, Faculty of mathematics and physics, Ljubljana, Slovenia. A review of a decade of research in soft matter photonic and the relation to experimental topology is presented.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 2903652The members of the project group organised the distinguished 10th Liquid Matter Conferenc which series has the reputation to attract world toplevel experts working on experiments, theory, and applications of the liquid state of matter, most notably physicists and chemists, complemented by experts from diverse related fields such as soft matter and biophysics (http://liquids2017.ijs.si). The conference was held from July 17-21 2017 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with cca 650 participants, 5 days, 3 parallel sessions and joined poster and exhibition sessions. It was the largest international event in the general field of liquid matter sciences in 2017. The Chairman of the conference was Prof. Igor Musevic, PI of this roct.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
This book was written upon the invitation of Springer publishers and presents the development of thism particular field of liquid crystal collods and dispersions, where J.Stefan Institute and the University of Ljubljana play the world-leading role. The book presents on more than 300 pages and 150 figures the physics of nematic colloids and their topological properties. It deals with forces between particles in liquid crystals and their self-organisation in colloidal structures. Great emphasis is given to colloidal entanglement by defect loops and their linking and knotting. The last chapter presents photonic properties of nematic colloids and nematic dispersions.
C.01 Editorial board of a foreign/international collection of papers/book
COBISS.SI-ID: 3100260This is an invited lecture, presented at the occasion of the annual congress of the Society of mathematicians, physicists and astronomers of Slovenia, September 26, 2015 in Ljubljana. This public lecture was given to high school teachers of physics and mathematics and presented an overview of the science and photonic technology of liquid crystals, including recent work on the topology of liquid crystals.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 17683033