title: First-order optical Freedericksz transition in a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal.
abstract: A first-order optical Freedericksz transition in a nematic liquid crystal doped by a small quantity of a dichroic dye with negative dichroism is observed. The initial homeotropic state corresponds to maximum absorption for the linearly polarized incident beam, while reorientation reduces absorption increasing the optical torque: this process produces the positive feedback leading to the observed bistable behavior.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze e Ingegneria della Materia, dell'Ambiente ed Urbanistica and CNISM Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. f.simoni@univpm.it
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Simoni
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Lucchetta
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lucchetti
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Ong
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Serak
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tabiryan