Orientational photorefractive effect in nematic liquid crystal with externally applied fields

Light-induced space-charge fields and the related orientational photorefractive effects in nematic liquid crystal cells are studied both theoretically and experimentally. Analytical solutions for the refractive index change distribution are obtained under the single-elastic-constant approximation with various configurations of externally applied electric and magnetic fields and of the nematic liquid crystal director. The effects of the rigid boundary condition are investigated in detail. The grating spacing for which the refractive index change is maximized depends on the strength of external electric and magnetic fields. The responses of parallel cells differ from those of homeotropic cells, both upon the dependencies on the grating spacing and on the external fields. Under the same conditions, the orientational photorefractive effects are stronger in parallel cells than in homeotropic ones. It is also shown that the investigated effects will be greatly enhanced near the Freedericksz transition. Experimental verifications of the photorefractive response in parallel aligned cells confirm the necessity to consider the boundary conditions explicitly. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)05316-0].