Nematic director slippage: Role of the angular momentum of light - art. no. 011701

We propose a theoretical model of the light-induced director slippage effec t. In this effect the bulk director reorientation contributes to the surfac e director reorientation. It is found that the director and ellipticity pro files, obtained in the geometric optics approximation, are dependent on the ellipticity of the incident light wave. The director distribution is spati ally modulated in linearly polarized light but grows monotonically in circu larly polarized light. The surface director deviation has been examined, an d comparison made with existing experimental data, which then permits the m agnitude of the orientational nonlinearity coefficient to be calculated.