Laser signals’ nonlinear change in fatty acids

Abstract Previous works showed that thin layers of fatty acids and fatty acid–cholesterol mixtures behaved as optical liquid crystals, even at low incident laser power. The paper presents an experimental and computer study of laser signals, emergent from such samples, in presence of fluctuations. The optical emergent laser beams’ features at different incident parameters were experimentally determined for different type (c.w. and pulsed) lasers, as for example helium–neon and Nd 3+ glass lasers. The results were correlated with the amount of cholesterol in mixtures and with their response in external electric field. These measurements are in all cases affected by fluctuations. We developed some computer-based procedures, by using the TableCurve3D from Jandel Scientific software and equations Runge–Kutta in MATLAB for taking into account these fluctuations.