https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2006-10081-5
Regular Article
Thermomechanical effects in uniformly aligned dye-doped nematic liquid crystals
1
Theoretische Physik, Universitaet Tuebingen, 72076, Tuebingen, Germany
2
Institut Non Linéaire de Nice, 1361 route des Lucioles, 06560, Valbonne, France
* e-mail: Dmitry.Krimer@uni-tuebingen.de
Received:
9
November
2006
Accepted:
27
April
2007
Published online:
24
May
2007
We show theoretically that thermomechanical effects in dye-doped nematic liquid crystals when illuminated by laser beams, can become important and lead to molecular reorientation at intensities substantially lower than that needed for optical Fréedericksz transition. We propose a 1D model that assumes homogenous intensity distribution in the plane of the layer and is capable to describe such a thermally induced threshold lowering. We consider a particular geometry, with a linearly polarized light incident perpendicularly on a layer of homeotropically aligned dye-doped nematics.
PACS: 05.45.-a Nonlinear dynamics and chaos – / 42.70.Df Liquid crystals – / 42.65.Sf Dynamics of nonlinear optical systems; optical instabilities, optical chaos and complexity, and optical spatio-temporal dynamics –
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2007
