Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals · 2006 · 14 citations · 11 references
Natural SciencesMaterials SciencePhysicsCondensed Matter PhysicsOptical MaterialsOpticsLiquid Crystal MaterialsLiquid CrystalsNonlinear Optical MaterialsNonlinear OpticsOptical Thin FilmsRefractive IndexCritical OpalescenceNematic Liquid CrystalsNonlinear EffectsNonlinear Optical EffectsNonlinear Optical PropertiesNonlinear RefractionNonlinear Refractive IndexOptical Nonlinearity
In this work, we studied a newly reported class of colossal nonlinear effects observed near the nematic-isotropic temperature transition. We show that the origin of this nonlinearity may be attributed to the onset of critical opalescence. Large diffraction efficiency (23%) and colossal nonlinear refractive index (n2 ≈ 50 cm2/W) has been measured in randomly oriented thin (1 μm) films of 5CB liquid crystals doped with small quantities of the azo dye methyl red (1%wt).
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