Photorefractive-like all-optical switching in nematic-photoconducting polymer liquid crystal cell

Nematic liquid crystals are highly optically nonlinear materials. Third order optical nonlinearities can be viewed through light intensity dependent refractive index. We exploit this nonlinearity in a specially designed planar liquid crystalline panel composed of highly birefringent nematic and photoconducting polymer to construct optically addressed spatial light modulator. The system described in this work shows photorefractive-like behavior enabling holographic animations in real-time. We also present all-optical switching using one laser source to create the grating and another one to modify the external electric field applied to the panel and resulting in switching of diffracted light intensity of the former.