NONLINEAR-OPTICAL EXPERIMENTS ON LIQUID-CRYSTAL CHIRAL STRUCTURES

Up to now there are only few reports in the literature on experimental examination of nonlinear effects in chiral liquid crystals. The prese nted data are sometimes confusing. We proposed a simple experiment in a probe+pump laser technics for studying periodic liquid crystalline s tructures. The paper presents initial results of examination of a chol esteric material in the region of selective light reflection. We have been interested if any nonlinear effect of the collective nature appea red by usually accessible light intensities, i.e. non-thermal but of o ptical reorientation origin. The investigation was oriented toward pot ential application in all-optical light modulators.