Nonlinear electro-optical holographic storage effects in fullerene C60-doped nematic liquid crystal films

There have been intense research interests in nonlinear optical materials capable of recording permanent holographic planar or volume gratings. In this paper, we present the first observation, to our knowledge, of electro-optical holographic storage grating effects in C ₆₀-doped nematic liquid crystal films. The effect is attributed to molecular axis reorientation caused by the combination of an applied dc field and the optically induced dc space charge field. To generate such reorientational effect, the applied dc field strength needed is on the order of 100 V/cm. This corresponds to a “battery-size” voltage of 1 Volt in typical films with thickness around 100 μm