Abstract

In recent years, study of the giant optical nonlinearities due to optical-field-induced molecular reorientation in liquid crystals has received considerable renewed attention.¹ Optically induced refractive-index changes of the order of 0.1 are easily achieved with cw laser beams. The existence of a characteristic threshold intensity (the threshold for the optical Freedericksz transition) below which no molecular orientation can be induced was also proved experimentally.²

© 1987 Optical Society of America