LAUSR

Photo-induced deflection of circular glassy nematic discs with different spiral director fields is studied by extending the Foppl–von Karman plate theory, and the objective is to examine the effects of director distribution and photo-attenuation across the thickness. The analytical solutions are obtained for axisymmetric deformations via the perturbation technique, and the predicted disc shapes are in qualitative consistency with some existing experimental observations. The analysis indicates that the photo-attenuation breaks up–down symmetry of deformation, causing the disc to bend out of plane in a definite direction without an intensity threshold of the incidental light. In addition, it is shown that the deflection can be maximized by optimizing the ratio of the disc thickness to the characteristic length of light attenuation. These results are expected helpful to the design of photo-activated glassy nematic devices.