Dynamics of the Petal-like Patterns in a Liquid Crystal Light Valve with Rotational Optical Feedback

Abstract

The bifurcation from the static petal pattern to the fluctuating petal pattern in a liquid crystal light valve with optical rotational feedback is investigated experimentally. At a threshold voltage of the bifurcation, rotationally propagating patches arises on the petals. When increasing the applied voltage, the motion of the patches becomes irregular and the pattern develops into space-time fluctuations. By measuring the time correlation function for the major spatial wave numbers, the characteristic features of the spatiotemporal fluctuations are analyzed in detail.

Keywords:

• nonlinear dynamics
• pattern formation
• spatiotemporal instabilities

PACS Numbers:

• Codes 230.3720,190.3100,190.1450

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by KAKENHI (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 19031026) on Priority Area “Soft Matter Physics” from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, by KAKENHI (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 18540375) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and by Toyota Physical and Chemical Research Institute.