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Abstract
Optical nonlinearities in nematic liquid crystals lead to strong self-defocussing and nonlinear diffraction effects with low power laser intensities of some hundred Watts/cm2. We describe these diffraction effects by expanding the transversally modulated intensity behind the sample into gaussian beams. Using in addition a simple model of light-induced reorientation of nematic liquid crystals as nonlinear mechanism, we get good agreement between theory and self-diffraction experiments, which have been done in the liquid crystal 5CB.