Electro-optic phenomena in nematic liquid crystals studied experimentally and by Monte-Carlo simulations

In this article we compare results of experiments on light self-diffraction in nematic liquid crystal panels with corresponding results of the Monte-Carlo simulations of a two-dimensional nematic liquid crystal model in the presence of a spatially modulated electric field. In the simulations molecular interactions were described by the Lebwohl–Lasher Hamiltonian. The results obtained on the diffraction efficiency and spatial and temporal behavior of refractive index changes in nematic liquid crystal are satisfactorily reproduced by Monte-Carlo simulations. We discuss the complementarity of both methods in studying and designing systems for optical information processing using liquid crystals.