Phase structure recording in a nematic side-chain liquid-crystalline polymer

Dye-doped nematic side-chain liquid-crystalline polymers possess extraordinary large optical nonlinearity and ability to store the induced orientational deformations in a glassy state, which makes them a very promising material for photonic applications. In this study, the phase structures were generated and recorded in the bulk of a 50-μm layer of a nematic liquid-crystalline side-chain polymer, containing polyacrylate backbone, spacer having five methylene groups, and phenyl benzoate mesogenic fragment. The polymer was doped with KD-1 azodye. The director field deformations induced by the light beam close to the TEM01 mode were studied for different geometries of light–polymer interaction. The phase modulation depth of 2π was obtained for the 18-μm spacing between intensity peaks. The experimental data were analyzed based on the elastic continuum theory of nematics. The possibility to induce and record positive and negative microlenses in the polymer bulk was shown experimentally.