Polarization switching by stimulated orientational scattering in birefringent nonlinear nematic liquid crystal film

Summary form only given. Broadband birefringence, occurring in the visible through the far infrared spectral regime, is one of the many unique optical properties of nematic liquid crystals responsible for their emergence as an technologically important electro-optical material. Nematic liquid crystals are also optically highly nonlinear, through the large susceptibilities of their refractive indices to temperature or orientation fluctuations caused by applied optical fields. In this paper, we report the result of a recent study which demonstrated that these birefringent nonlinearities of nematic liquid crystals could be utilized for polarization switching via laser induced stimulated orientational scattering process.<
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