Optomechanical effect in ferroelectric liquid crystal freely suspended films

Optomechanical effect in vibrating ferroelectric liquid crystal freely suspended films have been observed. In the experiment the liquid crystal films are doped with a photochromic dye which undergoes trans-cis isomerization. Photoisomerization induces the change both in a switching potential of the host liquid crystal and the film surface tension. We observed also a nonlinear dependence of photoinduced variation of the surface tension as function of the dye concentration. Such dependence strongly supports the possibility of amplification of photochemical effect in liquid crystals. The optomechanical effect might be exploited for the remote control of the sensors using freely suspended films, and more generally for the investigation of the cooperative phenomena in liquid crystals. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.