Enhancing sensitivity of photoinduced molecular reorientation of oligothiophene-doped liquid crystals irradiated with a collimated laser beam

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kohsuke Matsumoto ◽  
Koji Usui ◽  
Atsushi Shishido

Molecular reorientation and laser heating induced by an optical field can yield significant changes in the refractive indices in a nematic liquid crystal. A c.w. laser beam is intense enough to induce a phase retardation much larger than 2pi in a nematic film less than 100 pm thick. Optical bistability in such a film sandwiched between mirrors can be readily observed. Coupling between the two mechanisms for induced refractive indices can lead to interesting results in the bistable operation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Devi ◽  
B. Choudhury ◽  
A. Bhattacharjee ◽  
R. Dabrowski

AbstractOptical studies have been carried out on two fluorinated isothiocyanato nematic liquid crystal (LC) compounds 4′-butylcyclohexyl-3, 5-difluoro-4-isothiocyanatobiphenyl and 4′-pentylcyclohexyl-3, 5-difluoro-4-isothiocynatobiphenyl. Transition temperatures of the two samples were confirmed using a polarizing microscope. The two LC compounds were found to exhibit fairly high clearing temperatures. Measurements of refractive indices of the two compounds were done by using thin prism method with He-Ne laser beam of wavelength 630 nm. Birefringence of the two LC compounds was calculated from the measured refractive indices. Both the compounds are found to display fairly high values of birefringence. Validation of a modified four-parameter model, based on Vuks equation describing the temperature dependence of refractive indices of the two liquid crystals, is also presented in this paper. The model is validated by fitting the experimentally measured values of refractive indices, birefringence and average refractive indices of the two nematic LCs with the theoretical values. In this paper, the calculation of order parameters of the LCs is presented by using two methods: direct extrapolation method based solely on the birefringence data and by using modified Vuks method based on Haller’s extrapolation. As observed from the obtained results, this procedure of calculating order parameter gives very reasonable results.


1996 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 165-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.M. BLINOV

A review of the experimental data on a photoinduced molecular reorientation in various molecular guest-host systems (dyes in liquid solutions, liquid crystals and polymer matrices), side-chain polymers and Langmuir-Blodgett films (LBFs) containing light absorbing chromophores is presented. The photoorientation may be reversible or irreversible. It is accompanied by the photoinduced dichroism and optical anisotropy which is widely used for optical recording information. Special attention is paid to the photoassisted poling of polymers and LBFs, a novel technique that allows for the preparation of the stable photoelectrets at room temperature possessing very promising nonlinear optical properties. The physical mechanisms of the photoinduced molecular reorientation are discussed.


1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (Part 1, No. 12A) ◽  
pp. 3450-3455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Nose ◽  
Shin Masuda ◽  
Susumu Sato

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Filip Sala

By lunching the beam into the chiral nematic liquid crystals it is possible to achieve a non-diffractive beam similar to a soliton. This effect is caused by the molecular reorientation i.e. nonlinear response of the material forming the areas of higher refractive index. Diffraction is suppressed by the focusing effect. For appropriate launching conditions it is also possible to achieve a beam which splits into two or more separate beams. Such phenomenon is discussed in this article and analyzed theoretical. To model this effect Fully Vectorial Beam Propagation Method coupled with the Frank-Oseen elastic theory is used. Simulations are performed for various input beam powers, widths, polarization angles and launching positions. Full Text: PDF ReferencesG. Assanto and M. A. Karpierz, "Nematicons: self-localised beams in nematic liquid crystals", Liq. Cryst. 36, 1161–1172 (2009) CrossRef G. Assanto, Nematicons: Spatial Optical Solitons in Nematic Liquid Crystals, John Wiley & Sons Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey (2013) DirectLink A. Piccardi, A. Alberucci, U. Bortolozzo, S. Residori, and G. Assanto, "Soliton gating and switching in liquid crystal light valve", Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 071104 (2010). CrossRef D. Melo, I. Fernandes, F. Moraes, S. Fumeron, and E. Pereira, "Thermal diode made by nematic liquid crystal", Phys. Lett. A 380, 3121 – 3127 (2016). CrossRef U. Laudyn, M. Kwaśny, F. A. Sala, M. A. Karpierz, N. F. Smyth, G. Assanto, "Curved optical solitons subject to transverse acceleration in reorientational soft matter", Sci. Rep. 7, 12385 (2017) CrossRef M. Kwaśny, U. A. Laudyn, F. A. Sala, A. Alberucci, M. A. Karpierz, G. Assanto, "Self-guided beams in low-birefringence nematic liquid crystals", Phys. Rev. A 86, 013824 (2012) CrossRef F. A. Sala, M. M. Sala-Tefelska, "Optical steering of mutual capacitance in a nematic liquid crystal cell", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B. 35, 133-139 (2018) CrossRef U. A. Laudyn, A. Piccardi, M. Kwasny, M. A. Karpierz, G. Assanto, "Thermo-optic soliton routing in nematic liquid crystals", Opt. Lett. 43, 2296-2299 (2018) CrossRef F. A. Sala, M. M. Sala-Tefelska, M. J. Bujok, J. "Influence of temperature diffusion on molecular reorientation in nematic liquid crystals", Nonlinear Opt. Phys. Mater. 27, 1850011 (2018) CrossRef I-C Khoo Liquid crystals John Wiley & Sons, Inc (2007) DirectLink P. G. de Gennes, J. Prost, The Physics of Liquid Crystals, Clarendon Press (1995) DirectLink U. A. Laudyn, P. S. Jung, M. A. Karpierz, G. Assanto, "Quasi two-dimensional astigmatic solitons in soft chiral metastructures", Sci. Rep. 6, 22923 (2016) CrossRef J. Beeckman, A. Madani, P. J. M. Vanbrabant, P. Henneaux, S-P. Gorza, M. Haelterman, "Switching and intrinsic position bistability of soliton beams in chiral nematic liquid crystals", Phys. Rev. A 83, 033832 (2011) CrossRef A. Madani, J. Beeckman, K. Neyts, "An experimental observation of a spatial optical soliton beam and self splitting of beam into two soliton beams in chiral nematic liquid crystal", Opt. Commun. 298–299, 222-226, (2013) CrossRef G. D. Ziogos, E. E. Kriezis, "Modeling light propagation in liquid crystal devices with a 3-D full-vector finite-element beam propagation method", Opt. Quant. Electron 40, 10 (2008) CrossRef F. A. Sala, M. A. Karpierz, "Chiral and nonchiral nematic liquid-crystal reorientation induced by inhomogeneous electric fields", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 29, 1465-1472 (2012) CrossRef F. A. Sala, M. A. Karpierz, "Modeling of molecular reorientation and beam propagation in chiral and non-chiral nematic liquid crystals", Opt. Express 20, 13923-13938 (2012) CrossRef F. A. Sala, "Design of false color palettes for grayscale reproduction", Displays, 46, 9-15 (2017) CrossRef


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 8713
Author(s):  
Antonio d’Alessandro ◽  
Rita Asquini

Liquid crystals are interesting linear and nonlinear optical materials used to make a wide variety of devices beyond flat panel displays. Liquid crystalline materials can be used either as core or as cladding of switchable/reconfigurable waveguides with either an electrical or an optical control or both. In this paper, materials and main device structures of liquid crystals confined in different waveguide geometries are presented using different substrate materials, such as silicon, soda lime or borosilicate glass and polydimethylsiloxane. Modelling of the behaviour of liquid crystal nanometric molecular reorientation and related refractive index distribution under both low-frequency electric and intense optical fields is reported considering optical anisotropy of liquid crystals. A few examples of integrated optic devices based on waveguides using liquid crystalline materials as core for optical switching and filtering are reviewed. Reported results indicate that low-power control signals represent a significant feature of photonic devices based on light propagation in liquid crystals, with performance, which are competitive with analogous integrated optic devices based on other materials for optical communications and optical sensing systems.


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