Theory of orientational self-focussing in a light wave of ordinary type

A theoretical study is made of the interaction between the director for a homeotropically oriented nematic liquid crystal and a light wave of ordinary type at inclined incidence. Various methods are employed to calculate the director-reorientation threshold in response to a plane wave and a bounded beam. An oscillatory state is detected from the numerical solution of the equations describing the director reorientation within the framework of a simple model.