NONLINEAR OPTICAL APPLICATIONS OF PHOTOREFRACTIVE LIQUID CRYSTAL LIGHT-VALVES

摘要

We show a novel nonlinear optical medium, which is formed by coupling a liquid crystal layer to a photoconductive crystal. We show that this medium allows the control of the liquid crystal birefringence in a local and dynamical way, so that large optical nonlinearities are obtained on a large transverse section. The properties of the photorefractive liquid crystal light-valves are used to implement transverse pattern formation, two-wave mixing amplification and phase conjugation.