Feedback-free single-beam pattern formation by nanosecond pulses in dye-doped liquid crystals

Generally, optical feedback and/or two counter-propagating beams are necessary to form high-definition patterns in the cross section of a laser beam after passing through a nonlinear medium. In this paper we present an observation of pattern formation in liquid crystal media in a single laser beam without any external feedback. We found that after irradiation of a dye-doped liquid crystal cell with repetitive nanosecond pulses, the beam coming out of the liquid crystal cell exhibits a spectacular kaleidoscopic change of beam patterns in the far field. The patterns vary from pulse to pulse in an ordered manner cycling through a variety of complicated forms. We speculate that localized phase separation of the dye from the liquid crystal host occurs in the focal region of the beam in our experiments, and that the observed far-field patterns result from the laser-beam diffraction on these absorptive and refractive inhomogeneities.