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Updated: Jul 7, 2026
Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Dynamic evolution of light-induced orientation of dye-doped liquid crystals in liquid phase studied by time-resolved
1The State Key Lab for Advanced Photonic Materials and Devices, Department of Optical Science and Engineering, School of Information Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Transient evolution of light-induced molecular reorientation both in 1-amino-anthraquinone (1AAQ) dye and azobenzene doped isotropic liquid crystals (LCs) were studied by time-resolved optically heterodyned optical Kerr effect method. The results give clear direct experimental proof that under short pulse (30 ps) excitation, LC molecules orientate toward the excitation light polarization direction in the 1AAQ/LC system. However, LC molecular orientation becomes orthogonal to the light polarization in azobenzene/LC system. Time-resolved excited-state absorption of 1AAQ and wavelength dependent excited-state absorption of azobenzene were also observed and their contributions to the early dynamics of the third order optical responses of the two systems were confirmed. A simplified two-level mean-field theory was derived to reveal the intensity dependence of orientation enhancement factor in azobenzene/LC system considering the photoisomerization process.
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