Thermomechanical effects in uniformly aligned dye-doped nematic liquid crystals

Abstract

We show theoretically that thermomechanical effects in dye-doped nematic liquid crystals when illuminated by laser beams, can become important and lead to molecular reorientation at intensities substantially lower than that needed for optical Fréedericksz transition. We propose a 1D model that assumes homogenous intensity distribution in the plane of the layer and is capable to describe such a thermally induced threshold lowering. We consider a particular geometry, with a linearly polarized light incident perpendicularly on a layer of homeotropically aligned dye-doped nematics.