Photorefractive effect of liquid crystalline materials

This paper reviews our recent work on the photorefractive effect in liquid crystalline materials. The photorefractive effect is defined as the optical modulation of the refractive index of a medium as a result of various processes. The interference of two laser beams in a photorefractive material establishes a refractive index grating. This phenomenon enables the creation of different types of photonic applications. Recently, the development of organic photorefractive materials has been attracting great interest. Liquid crystalline materials are a strong candidate for practical photorefractive materials and application. In this paper, the photorefractivity of liquid crystalline polymers and ferroelectric liquid crystals is described.