POLARIZATION DYNAMICS OF AN ORDINARY LIGHT-WAVE INTERACTING WITH A NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTAL

Experimental observations and theoretical calculations of the interact ion of an ordinary light wave with a homeotropically aligned nematic l iquid crystal (NLC) are presented. It was observed that by increasing the light power, aperiodic, damped, periodic and stochastic oscillatio ns of the polarization of the light wave take place. Theoretically, th e self-consistent problem of the interaction of the director of a home otropic NLC with a plane light wave of ordinary type was treated and t he change in the polarization state of the transmitted light wave was calculated. Calculations reproduced the existence of aperiodic, damped and periodic oscillations, in qualitative agreement with the experime ntal results.