Abstract
We present here the crucial effects of material anisotropy on optical field induced pattern formation in the one-feedback-mirror arrangement which utilizes the nematic liquid crystal film as the nonlinear medium. By using the quasi-static electric-field-biased planar-aligned homogeneous nematic liquid crystal (NLC) films, we observe both the hexagon and the roll patterns which can be switched optically due to the intrinsic anisotropic distribution of the threshold intensity. The anisotropy comes from the anisotropic nonlinear response of the NLC film and is the crucial factor for such a one-feedback-mirror system to form both the roll and hexagon patterns. The observed phenomena can be explained from the linear stability analysis of the governing diffusion-like equation. The experimental results indicate that the stable roll patterns are formed at low input light power and the stable hexagon patterns formed at high input power.
Highlights
Optical pattern formation in nonlinear optics has received great interest in the last decade
A simple arrangement which is useful for optical pattern formation is constituted by a thin slice of Kerr or Kerr-like nonlinear medium and a single feedback mirror [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
As pointed out by Santamato in Ref.11, by using the homeotropically aligned nematic liquid crystal (NLC) films as the anisotropic nonlinear medium, one makes the formation of the roll patterns possible and the hexagon patterns can be formed as the anisotropy is reduced to zero by setting the NLC film in a suitable tilt angle
Summary
Optical pattern formation in nonlinear optics has received great interest in the last decade. As pointed out by Santamato in Ref., by using the homeotropically aligned NLC films as the anisotropic nonlinear medium, one makes the formation of the roll patterns possible and the hexagon patterns can be formed as the anisotropy is reduced to zero by setting the NLC film in a suitable tilt angle. The anisotropy for such systems can come from the tilt of the feedback mirror the drifting instability in the formation of the optical patterns may occur [12,13,14].
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