液晶配向乱れ・回復の動的過程の観測

抄録

Liquid crystals (LCs) are promising materials not only for the display purpose, but also for active matters, such as biological membrane. They are soft and flexible in nature, caused by the long molecular interaction. However, the dynamic change of liquid crystals has been difficult to clarify because of their nonlinear responses, collective behavior, orientation dependence, even though various time-resolved techniques have been utilized to study the dynamics by monitoring the change of LCs after a photo-induced trigger. Here, the history of such studies is reviewed, and it is described that the recent development of new techniques gradually have clarified the complicated processes. Especially the transient grating method is a powerful tool to study the photo-induced dynamics of LCs, by applying a simple optical setup and large-area (homogeneous) excitation. The studies on the host-guest interaction, photochemical phase transition, molecular orientation propagation, are introduced.