Pattern-forming instability induced by light in pure and dye-doped nematic liquid crystals

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2002 Sep;66(3 Pt 1):031707. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.66.031707. Epub 2002 Sep 24.

Abstract

We study theoretically the instabilities induced by a linearly polarized ordinary light wave incident at a small oblique angle on a thin layer of homeotropically oriented nematic liquid crystal with special emphasis on the dye-doped case. The spatially periodic Hopf bifurcation that occurs as the secondary instability after the stationary Freedericksz transition is analyzed.