Optical bistability associated with orientational nonlinearity of liquid crystals

An analysis is made of nonlinear optical phenomena associated with a change in the orientation of the director of a liquid crystal induced by an optical field and resulting in optical bistability. The usual configurations with a nonlinear Fabry-Perot resonator and several other configurations are considered. Bistable cells with cholesterics are proposed: in these cells the nonlinearity is associated with the absorption of the incident and reflected light and is related–via the temperature of the cell–to the cholesteric helix period. Devices are considered in which switching from one state to another takes place as a result of a change in radiation parameters (such as the frequency or polarization) other than the power.