Photo-induced phenomena in fullerene-doped PDLC

Laser-induced change in refractive index and optical limiting effect peculiarities have been studied in the liquid crystal systems based on fullerene-doped 2-cyclooctylamino-5-nitropyridine, polyimide, N-(4-nitrophenyl)-(L)-prolinol compounds. Experiments have been made under nano-, pico- and femtosecond pulsed laser irradiation at the wavelength of 532 nm and 805 nm. From the results obtained, both the optical limiting level and nonlinear refractive index n2 as well as the third-order susceptibility χ(3) have been determined. Potentials of the systems studied to attenuate laser irradiation and to record thin amplitude-phase hologram over the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges have been evaluated.