Light-induced adsorption and desorption in Methyl-Red-doped liquid crystals: a review

Abstract

We present a review of the main results reported during about two decades on light-induced phenomena in liquid crystal samples doped by the azo-dye Methyl-Red. The aim is to give a unifying picture of the different observed effects which have been demonstrated to be originated form the competition of light-induced adsorption and desorption phenomena at the illuminated boundary surface. They give rise either to colossal nonlinearity or to light-induced anchoring and memory effects and have a potential interest for photonics applications.

Keywords:

• dye-doped liquid crystals
• photoalignment
• nonlinear optical response

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.