Vol. 10 No. 4 (2018)

"Liquid Crystals for Photonics" - editorial note by Tomasz R. Woliński, Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Physics, Warsaw, Poland

7th International Workshop on Liquid Crystals for Photonics (WLCP-2018, wlcp2018.pl) was held in Jastrzębia Góra, Poland from September 17 to September 21, 2018 in the “Primavera” hotel at a beautiful Polish Baltic Sea shore, 70 km north of Gdańsk – the place where “Solidarity” movement was born in 1980  – and it gathered around 80 participants from Poland, Spain, Slovenia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, USA, Japan, Israel, Qatar, Russia, (16 countries in total).

The purpose of the Workshop was to provide a forum for liquid crystal (LC) scientists, researchers, and engineers from all over the world to present their pioneering work on recent progress in LC research for photonics and to exchange their ideas. The discussions provided a state-of-the-art overview of the area, highlighting the latest advances and possible future directions.

The Workshop scientific program included 4 tutorials and 4 keynote plenary lectures given by leading scientists working on liquid crystal photonics as well 6 invited talks and 32 oral contributions to enable stimulating discussions among researchers working in LC materials and devices for photonics.

Excellent plenary presentations: on phase separation in liquid crystals by Prof. Jan Lagerwall (Luxembourg), on electro-optics of oblique helicoidal cholesterics by Prof. Oleg Lavrentowich (USA), on complex liquid crystal geometries created by periodic photo-alignment by Prof. Kristiaan Neyts (Belgium), and on LC light modulators for non-display applications by Prof. Norbert Freuehauf (Germany) was delivered during the Workshop. Prof. L-C Chien (USA) outlined in his invited presentation augmenting light-cholesteric interactions with polymer-stabilized conical helix. Prof. J. M. Oton (Spain) was talking about modulating transmission of waveguides with tunable cladding. Prof. M. Karpierz (Poland) reviewed nonlinear guided light beams in LC structures; Prof. W. Królikowski (Australia/Qatar) devoted his talk to frustrated achiral and chiral nematics with potential for photonics while Dr. E. Oton’s (Spain/Poland) presentation was devoted to blue phase layers as 3D photonic crystals.

The sponsors of the event were Polish Academy of Sciences, Military University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and Photonics Society of Poland, who has distinguished best students presentations of the Workshop: Inge Nys (Belgium, 1 place), Koki Imamura (Japan, 2 place), and Agata Budaszewska (Poland, 3 place).

The current issue of Photonics Letters of Poland contains 9 letters mostly based on the ideas presented during the 7th International Workshop on Liquid Crystals for Photonics.