Self-defocusing. Schematic representation of the phenomenon of self-defocusing of a focused beam in the so-called Z-scan set-up produced by a dye-doped polymer-stabilized liquid crystal, where the liquid crystal director n, the electric field E, and the z-axis are indicated.

Optical nonlinearity with its self-modulation and threshold phenomena enables a wide variety of fundamental optical functions such as fast tuning and switching of optical properties. 

The aim of this research line is to produce highly non-linear, low-loss and printable materials that can be useful for applications in integrated photonics, cryptography and optical computing.

To achieve this goal, this idea is to use dye-doped polymer-stabilized liquid crystals and to exploit their Giant optical nonlinearity.

This research line will be explored in the ERC Stg 3DnanoGiant awarded to Sara Nocentini and started on 1 January 2025.

3DnanoGiant will develop new nonlinear materials for 3D integrated photonics. Combining giant optical non-linearity of liquid crystals and 3D nano printing. We will demonstrate all-optical processing at low power.