EN
Nonlinear reorientation phenomena in nematic liquid crystals cause extremely large refractive index changes. However, this effect is relatively slow and the determination of the time necessary to appearing or disappearing of the nonlinear effect is an important issue. In this work we present measurements of the time of increasing the nematics reorientation induced by the light beam passing through the liquid crystalline layer. The influence of external low-frequency electric field suppressing reorientation is also reported. The obtained results describing relations between time and optical power of light as well as between time and external electric field intensity are in good agreement with theory.