Dynamic Formation of Diffraction Grating in a Photorefractive Liquid Crystal Cell With Mesoporous $\hbox {TiO}_{2}$ Layers

We report the photorefractive effect of a layer-structured liquid crystal cell using N3-chemisorbed mesoporous TiO₂ layers as photoconductive layers. Well-organized mesoporous thin films were prepared using surfactant templates. N3 was chemisorbed on the mesoporous TiO₂ layer to effectively generate excited electrons, which could be injected in the TiO₂ layer and participate in the generation of a space-charge field in the LC cell. The prepared liqud crystal cell shows unique characteristics of an inorganic photoconductive layer, a temporal diffraction grating formation.