Shear-enhanced diffraction from thin permanent gratings in dye-doped nematic liquid crystal cells

Permanent gratings are recorded in planar-aligned dye-doped nematic liquid crystal cells under visible light illumination. By increasing the irradiation intensity and exposure time, several diffraction orders of the recorded gratings are obtained in the Raman-Nath diffraction regime. By applying a dynamic transverse shear on one of the confining plates of the cell, an enhancement of the diffraction efficiency is achieved, which follows the period of the grating. By microscope inspection under static displacement of the upper plate, surface gratings formed by the dye adsorption are revealed in both the front and rear windows of the cell, indicating that the diffraction amplification originates from a coherent superposition of the diffracted orders when the gratings are displaced half a period. The effect provides self-matched amplification of diffraction with a simple cell, a single photo-inscription stage, and elementary displacement steps.