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Applied Sciences
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Light Beams in Liquid Crystals
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Light Beams in Liquid Crystals

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Optics and Lasers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2021) | Viewed by 12684

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Gaetano Assanto

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
NooEL—Nonlinear Optics and OptoElectronics Lab, University “Roma Tre”, I-00146 Rome, Italy
Interests: nonlinear optics; nonlinear photonics; optical solitons; nematicons
Prof. Dr. Noel F. Smyth

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, UK
Interests: nonlinear waves; nonlinear optics; water waves

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to this Special Issue on Light Beams in Liquid Crystals. This Issue is intended to collect current research on the propagation of optical wavepackets in liquid crystals, in either linear or nonlinear regimes. This class of optical media has witnessed a great deal of scientific interest because they possess many intriguing and novel properties in terms of material composition, physical/optical parameters, and microscopic and macroscopic configurations which are a formidable asset towards their use and application in the linear as well as nonlinear optics of light beams propagating in liquid crystals.

We aim to collect papers reporting current work on the propagation and evolution of light beams in liquid crystals, embracing all types of materials and phases falling within this class, including but not limited to thermotropic, chiral, blue-phase, nematic, twisted, lyotropic, uniaxial/biaxial, isotropic/birefringent, etc.

The papers submitted to this Issue should deal with the physics, mathematics, engineering, or material science involved with the propagation and interaction of optical wavepackets in liquid crystals, that is:

  • Structured light beam propagation and evolution;
  • Optical pulse propagation and evolution;
  • Nonlinear-nonlocal optics/photonics;
  • Synergy and competition of nonlinear optical responses;
  • Beam self-localization and solitary waves;
  • Pancharatnam–Berry phase and polarization evolution;
  • Random lasing;
  • Electro-optical, acousto-optical, thermo-optical, magneto-optical effects with light beams;
  • Light modulation/switching;
  • Spontaneous/stimulated symmetry breaking;
  • Spatio-temporal dynamics;
  • Guided-wave optics and applications;
  • Light-induced phase transformations;
  • Liquid crystal light valves.

Prof. Dr. Gaetano Assanto
Prof. Dr. Noel F. Smyth
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Liquid crystals
  • Beam optics
  • Solitary waves
  • Nematicons
  • Nonlinear optics
  • Nonlocal optics
  • All-optical switching
  • Guided waves
  • Geometric phase
  • Optical modulation/switching
  • Nonlocal solitons
  • Structured beams
  • Vortices
  • Beam self-localization
  • Optical spin-orbit interactions
  • Optics of anisotropic media
  • Reorientational response
  • Thermal response

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

3 pages, 166 KiB  
Editorial
Special Issue on Light Beams in Liquid Crystals
by Gaetano Assanto and Noel F. Smyth
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(7), 3668; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12073668 - 06 Apr 2022
Viewed by 1002
Abstract
The study of propagating light beams in liquid crystals, i [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Light Beams in Liquid Crystals)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

9 pages, 4130 KiB  
Article
Photo-Aligned Nematic Liquid Crystals Enable the Modulation of Thermoplasmonic Heating
by Giovanna Palermo, Rossella Grillo, Luigia Pezzi, Thomas Bürgi, Nelson Tabiryan, Luciano De Sio and Cesare Umeton
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(14), 6272; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11146272 - 07 Jul 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1635
Abstract
We experimentally demonstrate that the plasmonic heat delivered by a single layer of homogeneously distributed gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), immobilized on a glass substrate, can be optically tuned by taking advantage of the properties of an organic layer based on azobenzene and nematic liquid [...] Read more.
We experimentally demonstrate that the plasmonic heat delivered by a single layer of homogeneously distributed gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), immobilized on a glass substrate, can be optically tuned by taking advantage of the properties of an organic layer based on azobenzene and nematic liquid crystal (NLC) molecules. The effect, which exploits the dependence of the NLC refractive index value on the molecular director orientation, is realized using the polarization-dependent, light-induced molecular reorientation of a thin film of photo-aligning material that the NLC is in contact with. The reversibility of the optically induced molecular director reorientation of the NLC enables an active modulation of the plasmonic photo-induced heat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Light Beams in Liquid Crystals)
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15 pages, 13126 KiB  
Article
Light-Induced Ring Pattern in a Dye-Doped Nematic Liquid Crystal
by Marcel G. Clerc, Gregorio González-Cortés, Paulina I. Hidalgo, Lucciano A. Letelier, Mauricio J. Morel and Jorge Vergara
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 5285; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11115285 - 07 Jun 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2724
Abstract
The use of dye-doped liquid crystals allows the amplification of the coupling of light and liquid crystals. Light can induce the self-organization of the molecular order. The appearance of ring patterns has been observed, which has been associated with phase modulation. However, the [...] Read more.
The use of dye-doped liquid crystals allows the amplification of the coupling of light and liquid crystals. Light can induce the self-organization of the molecular order. The appearance of ring patterns has been observed, which has been associated with phase modulation. However, the morphology and dynamics of the ring patterns are not consistent with self-modulation. Based on an experimental setup with two parallel coherence beams orthogonal to a liquid crystal cell, one of which induces photo-isomerization and the other causes illumination, the formation of ring patterns is studied. To use these two coherent beams, we synthesize methylred methyl ester as a dye-dopant, which is photosensitive only to one of the light beams, and a commercial E7 liquid crystal as a matrix. Based on a mathematical model that accounts for the coupling between the concentration of the cis-state and the order parameter, we elucidate the emergence of the rings as forming patterns in an inhomogeneous medium. The bifurcation diagram is analytically characterized. The emergence, propagation of the rings, and the establishment of the ring patterns are in fair agreement with the experimental observations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Light Beams in Liquid Crystals)
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30 pages, 784 KiB  
Article
Nematic Dispersive Shock Waves from Nonlocal to Local
by Saleh Baqer, Dimitrios J. Frantzeskakis, Theodoros P. Horikis, Côme Houdeville, Timothy R. Marchant and Noel F. Smyth
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(11), 4736; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11114736 - 21 May 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1359
Abstract
The structure of optical dispersive shock waves in nematic liquid crystals is investigated as the power of the optical beam is varied, with six regimes identified, which complements previous work pertinent to low power beams only. It is found that the dispersive shock [...] Read more.
The structure of optical dispersive shock waves in nematic liquid crystals is investigated as the power of the optical beam is varied, with six regimes identified, which complements previous work pertinent to low power beams only. It is found that the dispersive shock wave structure depends critically on the input beam power. In addition, it is known that nematic dispersive shock waves are resonant and the structure of this resonance is also critically dependent on the beam power. Whitham modulation theory is used to find solutions for the six regimes with the existence intervals for each identified. These dispersive shock wave solutions are compared with full numerical solutions of the nematic equations, and excellent agreement is found. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Light Beams in Liquid Crystals)
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18 pages, 297 KiB  
Article
Discrete Nonlinear Schrödinger Systems for Periodic Media with Nonlocal Nonlinearity: The Case of Nematic Liquid Crystals
by Panayotis Panayotaros
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(10), 4420; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11104420 - 13 May 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1155
Abstract
We study properties of an infinite system of discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations that is equivalent to a coupled Schrödinger-elliptic differential equation with periodic coefficients. The differential equation was derived as a model for laser beam propagation in optical waveguide arrays in a nematic [...] Read more.
We study properties of an infinite system of discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations that is equivalent to a coupled Schrödinger-elliptic differential equation with periodic coefficients. The differential equation was derived as a model for laser beam propagation in optical waveguide arrays in a nematic liquid crystal substrate and can be relevant to related systems with nonlocal nonlinearities. The infinite system is obtained by expanding the relevant physical quantities in a Wannier function basis associated to a periodic Schrödinger operator appearing in the problem. We show that the model can describe stable beams, and we estimate the optical power at different length scales. The main result of the paper is the Hamiltonian structure of the infinite system, assuming that the Wannier functions are real. We also give an explicit construction of real Wannier functions, and examine translation invariance properties of the linear part of the system in the Wannier basis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Light Beams in Liquid Crystals)
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Review

Jump to: Editorial, Research

21 pages, 1981 KiB  
Review
Unique Features of Nonlocally Nonlinear Systems with Oscillatory Responses
by Guo Liang, Jinlong Liu, Wei Hu and Qi Guo
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(5), 2386; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12052386 - 25 Feb 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1220
Abstract
We review the recent investigation of a new form of nonlocally nonlinear system with oscillatory responses. The system has various new features, such as the nonlocality-controllable transition of self-focusing and self-defocusing nonlinearities, a unique modulational instability and new forms of solitons. We also [...] Read more.
We review the recent investigation of a new form of nonlocally nonlinear system with oscillatory responses. The system has various new features, such as the nonlocality-controllable transition of self-focusing and self-defocusing nonlinearities, a unique modulational instability and new forms of solitons. We also discuss the propagation of the optical beam in a nematic liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy and demonstrate theoretically that propagation can be modelled by the system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Light Beams in Liquid Crystals)
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17 pages, 7978 KiB  
Review
Light Propagation in Confined Nematic Liquid Crystals and Device Applications
by Antonio d’Alessandro and Rita Asquini
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(18), 8713; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11188713 - 18 Sep 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2644
Abstract
Liquid crystals are interesting linear and nonlinear optical materials used to make a wide variety of devices beyond flat panel displays. Liquid crystalline materials can be used either as core or as cladding of switchable/reconfigurable waveguides with either an electrical or an optical [...] Read more.
Liquid crystals are interesting linear and nonlinear optical materials used to make a wide variety of devices beyond flat panel displays. Liquid crystalline materials can be used either as core or as cladding of switchable/reconfigurable waveguides with either an electrical or an optical control or both. In this paper, materials and main device structures of liquid crystals confined in different waveguide geometries are presented using different substrate materials, such as silicon, soda lime or borosilicate glass and polydimethylsiloxane. Modelling of the behaviour of liquid crystal nanometric molecular reorientation and related refractive index distribution under both low-frequency electric and intense optical fields is reported considering optical anisotropy of liquid crystals. A few examples of integrated optic devices based on waveguides using liquid crystalline materials as core for optical switching and filtering are reviewed. Reported results indicate that low-power control signals represent a significant feature of photonic devices based on light propagation in liquid crystals, with performance, which are competitive with analogous integrated optic devices based on other materials for optical communications and optical sensing systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Light Beams in Liquid Crystals)
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