Nonlinear optical molecular orientation of oligothiophene-doped liquid crystals

Dye-doped liquid crystals (LCs) have attracted much attention as promising materials for all-optical smart windows and optical limiters. However, more efficient nonlinear optical (NLO) molecular reorientation is expected to be applied to the materials and devices. This review introduces recent efforts to enhance optical nonlinearity using oligothiophene dye. First, the mechanism of NLO response based on oligothiophene-doped LCs is described. Second, our efforts focusing on nonlinearity enhancement in oligothiophene-doped LCs are introduced. Finally, the optical applications of the oligothiophene dye-doped LCs are presented. This review contributes to the material design for all-optical devices utilizing the nonlinear response of dye-doped LCs.