THE DECAY OF UNSTABLE ORIENTATIONAL STATES OF NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTALSINTERACTING WITH A LASER FIELD

We show that the rate of relaxation is an important characteristic of the dynamics of critical systems undergoing second order phase transit ion, which are, in fact, still in effective motion even after the orde r parameter is reaching its steady state value. As a model system, we investigate the instability of the orientational state of a nematic li quid crystal ached on by a laser field and present the measurement of the initial fluctuations that start up the decay of the unstable state .