Abstract

Liquid crystals are highly nonlinear materials. Typical liquid crystal molecules possess a strong second-order nonlinear polarizability. The overall medium could have a large second-order nonlinearity if the molecules could be aligned with a polarity. This is unfortunately not the case in practice without special treatment to the sample. The possibility that liquid crystal polymers can be efficient second-order nonlinear optical media is certainly very attractive.

© 1985 Optical Society of America