Observation of light-induced reorientational effects in periodic structures with planar nematic-liquid-crystal defects

We report on the experimental studies of the light-induced reorientational effects in a one-dimensional periodic photonic structure with an embedded planar nematic-liquid-crystal defect. We demonstrate that in the presence of a periodic structure, the self-action of light in a liquid-crystal layer demonstrates sharp power-dependent characteristics for the intensity-dependent optical transmission. Robustness of the effect suggests its applications for all-optical tunable photonic devices.