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Updated: May 13, 2026

High-Contrast and Fast Photorheological Switching of a Twist-Bend Nematic Liquid Crystal
Published on: October 31, 2019
First-order optical Freedericksz transition in a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal
F Simoni1, D E Lucchetta, L Lucchetti
1Dipartimento di Scienze e Ingegneria della Materia, dell'Ambiente ed Urbanistica and CNISM Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. f.simoni@univpm.it
Abstract:
A first-order optical Freedericksz transition in a nematic liquid crystal doped by a small quantity of a dichroic dye with negative dichroism is observed. The initial homeotropic state corresponds to maximum absorption for the linearly polarized incident beam, while reorientation reduces absorption increasing the optical torque: this process produces the positive feedback leading to the observed bistable behavior.

