Optically induced extraordinarily large negative orientational nonlinearity in dye-doped liquid crystal

Author

Khoo, Iam Choon ; Li, Hong ; Liang, Yu

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

Volume

29

Issue

5

fYear

1993

fDate

5/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1444

Lastpage

1447

Abstract

Laser induced large negative reorientational nonlinearities are observed in dye-doped liquid crystal. The effect is attributed to intermolecular torque exerted by the photoexcited dye molecules, which causes the liquid crystal axis to realign in a direction orthogonal to the optical electric field. Optical nonlinearity as large as 10^-2 cm²/W in a 37-μm-thick sample has been observed. In some highly absorptive dyed liquid crystal, the orientational effect can be much larger than the thermal effect

Keywords

laser beam effects; liquid crystals; molecular orientation; nonlinear optics; 37 micron; dye-doped liquid crystal; extraordinarily large negative; highly absorptive; intermolecular torque; laser-induced nonlinearity; liquid crystal axis; optical electric field; optical nonlinearity; orientational nonlinearity; orthogonal molecular realignment; photoexcited dye molecules; reorientational nonlinearities; thermal effect; Dielectrics; Geometrical optics; Linearity; Liquid crystals; Optical polarization; Optical pumping; Optical refraction; Optical surface waves; Optical variables control; Torque;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.236160

Filename

236160