Optical bistability, multistability, and instabilities in liquid crystals

The physical aspects of the manifestation of optical bistability, instabilities, and stochasticity in strongly nonlinear media in the form of liquid crystals subjected to laser radiation fields are discussed. The stress is on experimental research. Optical bistability and multistability are considered for a number of light-induced effects in homogeneous and inhomogeneous liquid crystals. The special features of these effects in liquids crystals, associated with the field-induced structural phase transitions, are stressed and the concept of intrinsic (mirrorless) optical bistability is introduced. General nonlinear systems with optical bistability are considered. An analysis is made of instabilities and stochasticity manifested in experiments on light-induced reorientation of liquid crystals in the presence of fields of different origin, giving rise to oscillatory and chaotic processes in the case of self-modulation of the transmitted light.