Determination of third order optical non-linearity in a liquid crystal by Z-scan technique for optoelectronic applications

Abstract

In this paper we report the preliminary experimental data of the third order non-linearity in a liquid crystal 5HCB sample doped with methyl-red using Z-scan technique. We observe a negative nonlinearity in the sample, which is great optical nonlinearity ten times more than other results previously reported in liquid crystals. This phenomena is obtained in the nematic phase regime. For upper temperature, we observe a notable decreasing of the optical nonlinearity due to sample change to isotropic phase.