Abstract

We report a new mechanism for dynamic hologram (DH) formation based on the photoinduced increase of spontaneous polarization (P_s) in a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) doped with a chiral thioindigo dye [1], The application of a DC electric field (without light irradiation) produced a switch of the P_s of our cell. A subsequent decrease of the voltage brought the system back to its initial state while demonstrating a significant hysteresis behavior. The experiment was repeated with the sample cell under spatially uniform irradiation at 514.5 nm. This caused the hysteresis region to shift to lower voltages. We used this effect to produce electric field controlled DH by generating gratings of P_s in the presence of a DC electric field.

© 1998 IEEE