Abstract

1. The threshold high nonlinearity of liquid crystals(LC) leads to real laser-induced structural phase transitions and the different spatial modulated structures arise in the medium because of two waves of different polarizations travelling through the medium create (due to the anisotropy) laser-induced gratings along the thickness (d) of the sample (z-direction). An energy interchange and competition occur between two polarization components in the laser-induced-distorted, non-homogeneous anisotropic medium with spatial modulation of the optical axis $\overrightarrow{\text{n}}\left(\text{z}\right)$. That leads to optical multistability and dynamic instabilities in wave-phenomena without any external feedback. The intrinsic feedback is determined by a nonlocal nonlinear response of the medium to the laser field, because of the elastic forces, for these effects.

© 1988 Optical Society of America