Title

Temporal instability due to competing spatial patterns in liquid crystals in the light field

Abstract

We unveil the physical origin of the peculiar spatio-temporal instability phenomena observed in liquid crystals subject to the influence of a light wave of ordinary polarization. Our study shows that due to non-adiabatic propagation of a light beam in an anisotropic medium, the light polarization and, hence, the torque acting on the orientation of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) is asymmetrically modulated over the NLC layer. The spatial pattern of the NLC reorientation that is formed across the NLC-layer under the influence of such a torque may become unstable in time due to competing interaction of symmetric and antisymmetric modes. The obtained results allow evaluation of the threshold intensity and the range of the light incidence angles where the longitudinal spatio-temporal instability is possible. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

8-15-1998

Publication Title

Optics Communications

Volume

154

Issue

1-3

Number of Pages

70-74

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0030-4018(98)00284-3

Socpus ID

0032135974 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/0032135974

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