  We study global minimizers of an energy functional arising as a thin sample
limit in the theory of light-matter interaction in nematic liquid crystals. We
show that depending on the parameters various defects are predicted by the
model. In particular we show existence of a new type of topological defect
which we call the {\it shadow kink}. Its local profile is described by the
second Painlev\'e equation. As part of our analysis we find new solutions to
this equation thus generalizing the well known result of Hastings and McLeod.
