Molecular rotation induced by circularly polarized light in polymer-stabilized dye-doped liquid crystals exhibiting molecular rotation

Abstract

Liquid crystals (LCs), possessing both fluidity and optical anisotropic properties, exhibit interesting optical functions. In particular, homogeneously aligned dye-doped LCs change their molecular orientation by the incidence of a polarized laser beam, causing the self-focusing and phase modulation effects resulting in the formation of diffraction rings. Recently, we have discovered that polymer stabilization of dye-doped LCs drastically enhances their optical sensitivity, and that the ellipsoidal diffraction rings rotate by the irradiation with a circularly polarized beam. However, the mechanism of this rotation behavior remained unexplored. In this study, we investigated the molecular reorientation and rotation behavior of diffraction rings arising from PSLCs fabricated with several different conditions.