Phototunable reflection notches of cholesteric liquid crystals

The reflection notch of cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) formed from highly photosenstive azobenzene nematic liquid crystals doped with light-insensitive, large helical twisting power chiral dopants is shown to be widely phototunable by green laser beams. The nonlinear transmission properties of these materials were studied. We have shown that the relative shift in Bragg wavelength is independent of the chiral dopant concentration and develop a predictive theory of such behavior. The theory describes the dynamics of phototuning as well. Reflection shifts greater than 150 nm were driven with low power, cw of 532 nm in these photosensitive CLCs, previously attainable only through UV pre-exposure. A nonlinear feedback mechanism was demonstrated for CLCs of left, right, and both handedness upon laser-induced blueshifting of the reflection notch from a red wavelength using a green cw laser. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.