Eur. Phys. J. E (2007) 23: 77-82
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

Abstract

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.