LASER-INDUCED OPTICAL SWITCHING OF A FERROELECTRIC LIQUID CRYSTAL

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Abstract
Optically induced rotation of the optical axis in a chiral smectic-C* liquid crystal has been investigated in a two-wavelength pump-probe arrangement. It is shown that optical axis reorientation is a result of opto-thermal tilt-angle changes in the SmC*-phase, which are excited by an argon-ion laser and probed by a weak He-Ne laser. The maximum induced reorientation angle has been 23 deg in these experiments. The switching times are governed by thermal-relaxation processes, and are in the range of milliseconds or less in the present arrangement. The experimental results are described by a Landau-theory of the SmC*-SmA phase transition in addition to a relaxation-time approximation of the heat-flow equation.

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