Characteristic of nonlinear optical effect including photothermal effects in dye-doped liquid crystals.

Abstract

Transient properties of nonlinear refractive index change originating in photothermal effects in guest-host liquid crystal (GHLC) have been characterized by use of heat-conductive analysis. By theoretical calculations using time-dependent heat-conduction analysis, a time constant was estimated to be about 23 ms, which was in good agreement with the experimental observation (about 30 ms). The characterization technique described here is very useful for characterizing the quantitative properties of photothermal effect in GHLC.