Spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals

Author

Assanto, Gaetano ; Peccianti, Marco

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Terza Univ. of Rome, Italy

Volume

39

Issue

1

fYear

2003

fDate

1/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

13

Lastpage

21

Abstract

Nematic liquid crystals exhibit a saturable nonlinearity, nonlocal in time and in space, owing to light-induced reorientation of the molecular director. In such media, (2 + 1)-dimensional spatial solitons can be obtained at milliwatt-power levels and confine weaker co-polarized signals of different wavelengths, employing either coherent or partially incoherent excitations. Our experimental observations of solitons and related phenomena, ranging from angular steering to mutual interactions, are reviewed. Models are briefly discussed and used to predict and interpret the results.

Keywords

nematic liquid crystals; optical self-focusing; optical solitons; 2+1 dimensional spatial solitons; angular steering; co-polarized signals; coherent excitations; light-induced reorientation; milliwatt-power levels; molecular director; mutual interactions; nematic liquid crystals; partially incoherent excitations; saturable nonlinearity; spatial solitons; Crystalline materials; Liquid crystals; Nonlinear optics; Optical materials; Optical polarization; Optical refraction; Optical saturation; Optical solitons; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2002.806185

Filename

1158802