Acousto-optic effect in nematic liquid crystals: Experimental evidence of an elastic regime

摘要

We show that the experimental data for the action of ultrasonic waves on homeotropically aligned nematicliquid-ncrystal cells reported by Kapustina, in Akust. Zh. 54, 900 (2008) [Acoust. Phys. 54, 778 (2008)] can benexplained in the framework of the director-density coupling theory in the regime of low acoustic intensity. Thisnresult therefore provides support for the hypothesis that the interaction between sound and nematic liquid crystalsnis dominated by an elastic energy.