STIMULATION OF CONVECTIVE MOTIONS AND HYDRODYNAMIC ORIENTATIONAL SURFACE WAVES IN LIQUID CRYSTALS BY LASER RADIATION WITH GAUSSIAN CROSS DISTRIBUTION OF INTENSITY

摘要

It has been experimentally demonstrated the possibility of stimulation of con-veclive motions with toroidal symmetry in the nonoriented nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cell with free surface. The cell is locally heated either from top or from bottom by gaussian laser radiation. Perturbation of free surface of NLC and hydrodynamic convective motion are conditioned mainly by horizontal thermal gradients. It has been demonstrated that in the zone of convection appears the radial distribution of NLC director orientation. At certain conditions of experiment, we have observed hydrodynamic orientational soli-ton like waves on the free surface of NLC.