Planar amplifier for a microlaser on a cholesteric liquid crystal

A planar device is described, which combines an oscillator (microlaser) based on a dye doped cholesteric liquid crystal and an amplifier made of another laser dye solution in glycerin. Both the oscillator and amplifier are pumped longitudinally with the same pump beam. With that simple 4 mm thick structure, the oscillator beam was amplified seven times. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.