Abstract
It is experimentally demonstrated that a circularly polarized laser beam normally incident on a homeotropically aligned nematic film can induce a collective precession of the molecules in the film if the laser intensity is above the threshold for the Fréedericksz transition. The effect is shown to result from a transfer of angular momentum from the laser beam to the medium.
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Notes
See, for example, J. M. Jauch and F. Rohrlich, The Theory of Photons and Electrons (Addison-Wesley, Cambridge, 1955).
Nevertheless, this torque has been measured in static conditions with a sophisticated torsional balance by R. A. Beth, Phys. Rev. 50, 115 (1936).
C. F. Buhrer, L. R. Bloom, and D. H. Baird, Appl. Opt. 2, 839 (1963)
R. Calvani, R. Caponi, and F. Olsternino, Opt. Commun. 54, 63 (1985).
B. Ya. Zel’dovich and N. V. Tabiryan, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 82, 1126 (1982) [Sov. Phys. JETP 55, 99 (1982)].
A small (~ 3%) oscillation of the output polarization ellipticity was always present. This effect is due to an imperfect, rigid rotation of the liquid-crystal molecules that has been neglected in our simplified mode. The values of Δs 3 reported in Figs. 2 and 3 are obtained by averaging over this oscillation.
S. D. Durbin, S. M. Arakelian, and Y. R. Shen, Opt. Lett. 6, 411 (1981).
The same mechanism is responsible for the sharp switchon of BC in Fig. 2.
The mechanical constants and refractive indices of 5CB are taken, respectively, from K. Skarp, S. T. Lagerwall, and B. Stebler, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 60, 215 (1980)
and from R. G. Horn, J. Phys. (Paris) 39, 105 (1978).
See, for example, P. G. de Gennes, The Physics of Liquid Crystals (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1974), pp. 156–158.
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Santamato, E., Daino, B., Romagnoli, M., Settembre, M., Shen, Y.R. (1986). Collective Rotation of Molecules Driven by the Angular Momentum of Light in a Nematic Film. In: Jánossy, I. (eds) Opticals Effects in Liquid Crystals. Perspectives in Condensed Matter Physics, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3180-3_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3180-3_19
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