Nonlinear Optical Effect and Optical Limiting Behavior of PolymerStabilized Dye-Doped Liquid Crystals Induced by a CollimatedLaser Beam

摘要

Optical limiting materials which enable to control light transmittance depending on theincident light intensity have the great deal of interest for the application such as dimmingglasses and protection of other devices against a high-power laser beam.Among these materials,dye-doped liquid crystals can control transmittance by irradiation with lower intensity of lightbased on nonlinear reorientation of molecules.Recently,we have found that polymer-stabilizeddye-doped LCs (PSLCs) containing low-concentration oligothiophene-dye and polymer couldsuccessfully reduce the light intensity required for nonlinear molecular reorientation [1-3].However,such molecular reorientation has been investigated only by the focused laser beam,which limits application to optical limiter due to the complicated optical system.In this study,we investigated photoinduced molecular reorientation and transmittance behavior of PSLCswith a collimated laser beam,which might enable a lens-free optical system.