Neither kerr nor thermal nonlinear response of dye doped liquid crystal characterized by the z-scan technique

In the experimental characterization of the nonlinear optical properties of dye-doped liquid crystals by the Z-scan technique with CW lasers it is rather common to assign it a Kerr or thermal nonlinear response. In this work, we demonstrate that neither of them correctly describes all features of th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: CARLOS GERARDO TREVIÑO PALACIOS, OSCAR BALDOVINO PANTALEON, RUBEN RAMOS GARCIA, MARCELO DAVID ITURBE CASTILLO
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:México
Institución:Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica
Repositorio:Repositorio Institucional del INAOE
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx:1009/1154
Acceso en línea:http://inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1009/1154
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:info:eu-repo/classification/cti/1
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/22
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2209
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/220913
Descripción
Sumario:In the experimental characterization of the nonlinear optical properties of dye-doped liquid crystals by the Z-scan technique with CW lasers it is rather common to assign it a Kerr or thermal nonlinear response. In this work, we demonstrate that neither of them correctly describes all features of the Z-scan obtained in planar samples of methyl red doped 5CB liquid crystal using He-Ne CW illumination, where a strong nonlinear optical response is observed. The Z-scan curves depend strongly on the input polarization of the beam obtaining negative and positive nonlinear response for polarizations parallel and ortogonal to the director vector. We discuss and compare the effect of an additional incoherent linearly-polarized beam and plain heating source on Z-scan experiments. A theoretical model, valid for small and large phase modulation, is proposed based on the assumption that the sample can be considered as a thin lens with a photoinduced focal length dependent on the Gaussian beam radius ωᵐ (where m is an integer), obtaining good agreement with the experimental curves for m =3, which is neither a Kerr nor thermal nonlinearity.