Tunable photonic nanojet achieved using a core-shell microcylinder with nematic liquid crystal

A tunable photonic nanojet achieved using a core-shell microcylinder with nematic liquid crystal is reported. The core-shell microcylinder can be obtained by the infiltration of liquid crystal into the air core of a microcylinder. The refractive indices of the liquid crystals can be changed by rotating the directors of the liquid crystals. Therefore, we were able to control the flow direction of the photonic nanojet in two-dimensional core-shell microcylinder structures. Using high resolution finite-difference time-domain simulation, we demonstrate that the photonic nanojet can be continuously tuned in the core-shell microcylinder. The horizontal and vertical shifts of photonic nanojet depend strongly on the director of the liquid crystals. Such a mechanism of nanojet adjustment should open up a new application for using visible light to detect nanoparticles, optical gratings, and single molecules with subwavelength spatial resolution.