Determination of Light-Induced Deformation Characteristics of the Director Field of Nematic Liquid Crystal by Combining the Methods of Aberrational Self-Action of Light Beam and Polarization Microscopy

Ivan Budagovsky; Aleksey Kuznetsov; Sergey Shvetsov; Mikhail Smayev; Alexander Zolot'ko

doi:10.1093/micmic/ozad079

Determination of Light-Induced Deformation Characteristics of the Director Field of Nematic Liquid Crystal by Combining the Methods of Aberrational Self-Action of Light Beam and Polarization Microscopy

Microsc Microanal. 2023 Sep 29;29(5):1639-1649. doi: 10.1093/micmic/ozad079.

Authors

Ivan Budagovsky¹, Aleksey Kuznetsov¹, Sergey Shvetsov^{1

2}, Mikhail Smayev¹, Alexander Zolot'ko¹

Affiliations

¹ Optics Department, Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr., 53, Moscow 119991, Russia.
² Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, GSP-1, 1-2 Leninskiye Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia.

PMID: 37584516
DOI: 10.1093/micmic/ozad079

Abstract

Light-induced director field deformation of a nematic liquid crystal in the field of an obliquely incident laser beam is experimentally studied with aberrational self-action and polarization microscopy. Each of the methods has features associated with the geometry of the light interaction with the director. The combination of methods significantly expands the possibilities of reconstructing the light-induced nonlinear phase shift profile and the director field deformation.

Keywords: aberration self-action; director deformation field; nematic liquid crystals; nonlinear phase shift; orientational optical nonlinearity; polarization microscopy.