The dependence of the optimal electric biasing field and the diffraction efficiency on the thickness of the nematic thin film through the degenerate four-wave-mixing process is investigated. For relatively low optical pumps, the optimal bias monotonically increases with thickness, while the corresponding diffraction efficiency increases at first and then decays for a thickness even less than 150 µm, which is well within the phase-matching regime. For stronger pumps, the optimal bias can be doubly valued, and the curve of optimal bias versus thickness shows a closed loop. This behavior is unique to liquid crystals. The main mechanism is due to the twist effect of molecular orientation in addition to the scattering loss. Both the numerical and experimental results show these peculiar phenomena.

© 1993 Optical Society of America

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription