Photoinduced scalar and vectorial optical phenomena in nano-dimensional glassy chalcogenide films and their liquid crystal photoalignment

Photoinduced (PI) scalar and vectorial optical phenomena in chalcogenide glassy films' early studies were performed on films thicker than 0.5-l μm. Recent finding of nano-dimensional (ND) As₂S₃ films possibility to act as a photoalignment layer for nematic liquid crystals (LCs) made careful investigation of PI anisotropy and other PI phenomena in nano-dimensional (<100 nm thick) chalcogenide films of different composition. Results of such investigation are considered in this paper. The scalar and vectorial PI phenomena having many similar characteristics are shown to exist in all studied (ND) As-containing chalcogenide glassy films both stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric. The ND Ge-containing chalcogenide glassy films are shown to have very different optical characteristics. We demonstrated that ND chalcogenide glassy films of different compositions are able to act as photoalignment layers for nematic LCs under irradiation with linearly polarized light.