Thermal grating diffusion in rather thin liquid crystal films

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Abstract
The decay of picosecond-laser-induced thermal gratings in rather thin liquid crystal films is investigated. It is shown that, in contrast to the case samples several tens to hundreds of micrometres thick, the relaxation of thermal gratings in liquid crystals of about 2 mu m thickness, stacked between two semi-infinite glass substrates, is mainly determined by transverse heat transport processes through the cell surfaces instead of longitudinal diffusion in the direction of the grating wavevector. Experimental observations are compared with theoretical considerations and numerical solutions of the heat flow equation.