A new type of lasing was obtained on the basis of a dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal laser with transversally distributed excitation. Two coherent beams of the pumping laser formed an interference pattern in the planar dye-doped cholesteric layer and provided laser generation in the separate narrow strips of the pumped area. Each of the strips demonstrated lasing along the cholesteric axis. But, due to the mutual coherence of the separate strips emission, the total picture of lasing represented an interference pattern. Thus, in contrast to the conventional lasers, the intensity distribution in the laser emission pattern had a periodical character similar to diffraction from an elementary dynamic hologram.

Spatial modulation of laser emission controlled by the structure of excitation light field was demonstrated. A dye doped polymer film as an active medium was sandwiched between two laser mirrors forming a laser cell. The pumping was performed by an interference pattern formed with two mutually coherent beams of the second harmonic of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser (532 nm) and located in the plane of the laser cell. The laser emission was observed normally on the plane of the cell. The cross section of the obtained laser emission was modulated in intensity with an interval between maximums depending on the period of the pumping interference pattern. Thus, the emitted light field qualitatively looks like diffraction from an elementary dynamic hologram, that is, a holographic diffraction grating.

A simple analysis of the possibility of creating a holographic chiral structure on the basis of Weigert's effect with help of the Jones vector-matrix method was done, to my knowledge, for the first time. A corresponding experiment was also conducted. The results of the investigation show that the diffractive optical element obtained behaves similarly to liquid crystals or sculptured thin films with chiral structures.

The dynamic process of the multiple generation and deletion of anisotropy with linearly polarized actinic light is investigated experimentally in azo-dye-colored gelatin. The results of the investigation are in good compliance with the possible mechanism of anisotropy generation in the azo-dye-colored materials proposed by the author [Z. V. Wardosanidze, Appl. Opt. 45, 438-444 (2006)].

The dynamic process of highly efficient holographic recording of two orthogonally circularly polarized plane light waves on the azo-dye-colored gelatin with powerful Weigert's effect is investigated. The investigation has shown that at some ratios of the intensities of the recording waves the self-recording phenomenon during the reconstruction process by the same actinic light (lambda=488.0 nm) is observed, and the diffractive efficiency for the probe light (lambda=632.8 nm) of an already fully recorded hologram increases again almost instantly after blocking one of the recording beams of low intensity. The maximum diffractive efficiency reaches 40%-45% in this case.