Laser-pointer induced nonlinear optical effect

Abstract

Liquid crystals (LCs) are attractive optical materials due to their large optical nonlinearity. However, such nonlinearity could only be observed at very high light intensities, requiring costly high-power laser sources. Here we show that nonlinear optical effect is induced with a 1-mW laser pointer. We prepared dye-doped polymer-stabilized LC with hybrid molecular alignment. Hybrid alignment refers to homeotropic molecular director at one surface while homogeneous molecular director at the other. Nonlinear optical effect working at low light intensity may significantly expand the practical use of nonlinear optics.