Light-Induced Ring Pattern in a Dye-Doped Nematic Liquid Crystal

Light-induced rotation of dye-doped liquid crystal droplets.

We investigate both theoretically and experimentally the rotational dynamics of micrometric droplets of dye-doped and pure liquid crystal induced by circularly and elliptically polarized laser light. The droplets are dispersed in water and trapped in the focus of the laser beam. Since the optical torque acting on the molecular director is known to be strongly enhanced in light-absorbing dye-dop...

Light-induced orientational effects in periodic photonic structures with pure and dye-doped nematic liquid crystal defects

Andrey E. Miroshnichenko, Etienne Brasselet, and Yuri S. Kivshar Nonlinear Physics Centre and Centre for Ultra-high bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Centre de Physique Optique Moléculaire et Hertzienne, Université Bordeaux 1, CNRS, 351 Cours de la Libération, 33405 Talence Cedex, France Received 22 June 2008; published 1...

All-optical modulation in dye-doped nematic liquid crystal photonic bandgap fibers.

Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) have attracted significant attention during the last years and much research has been devoted to develop fiber designs for various applications, hereunder tunable fiber devices. Recently, thermally and electrically tunable PCF devices based on liquid crystals (LCs) have been demonstrated. However, optical tuning of the LC PCF has until now not been demonstrated. H...

Cumulative Birefringence Effects of Nanosecond Laser Pulses in Dye-doped Planar Nematic Liquid Crystal Layers

New cumulative effects in laser-induced birefringence have been observed under 10Hz-pulse-repetition-rate, nanosecond-duration laser irradiation of azo-dye-doped planarnematic liquid crystal layers at incident intensities I ∼ 1–10 MW/cm2. An irradiation geometry with the incident polarization parallel to the nematic director was used. This geometry does not permit a first-order electric field i...

Transient and steady state photorefractive responses in dye-doped nematic liquid crystal cells