Effect of pressure on the dynamics of the photostimulated orientational ordering transition in a liquid crystal

We have investigated the influence of the applied pressure on the shift in the photostimulated phase transition temperature and the dynamics of the system to undergo such a phase transition. The shift is seen to decrease with increasing pressure, a feature that can be countered, to a certain extent, by increase in the intensity of the light used. Whereas the time scales of the system to undergo such a transition increases with pressure, the thermal back relaxation process to recover the original phase occurs faster at elevated pressures. We propose a simple argument to explain these observations.