Photoinduced molecular reorientation of absorbing liquid crystals

The phenomenon of photoinduced molecular reorientation of absorbing nematic liquid crystals is analyzed in a macroscopic general framework and with a specific molecular model. The photoinduced torque responsible for the reorientation is shown to describe a transfer of angular momentum from the molecule center-of-mass degrees of freedom to the rotational ones, mediated by molecular friction. As a consequence, a photoinduced stress tensor is predicted to develop together with the torque in the illuminated fluid. A molecular expression of the photoinduced torque is derived with a rigorous procedure, valid both for a pure material and for a dye--liquid-crystal mixture. This torque expression corrects those reported in previous works on the same subject. The photoinduced torque is evaluated analytically in a simple approximate limit.