Paper detail

Deep optical penetration dynamics in photo-bending

We model both the photo-stationary state and dynamics of an illuminated, photo-sensitive, glassy liquid crystalline sheet. To illustrate the interplay between local tilt $θ$ of the sheet, effective incident intensity, curvature and dynamics, we adopt the simplest variation of local incident light intensity with angle, that is $\cosθ$. The tilt in the stationary state never overshoots the vertical, but maximum curvature could be seen in the middle of the sheet for intense light. In dynamics, overshoot and self-eclipsing arise, revealing how important moving fronts of light penetration are. Eclipsing is qualitatively as in the experiments of Ikeda and Yu (2003).