Discrete solitons in nematic liquid crystals

Author

Karpierz, Miroslaw A. ; Assanto, Gaetano ; Brzdøkiewicz, Katarzyna A. ; Fratalocchi, Andrea ; Nowinowski-Kruszelnicki, Edward ; Sierakowski, Marek

Author_Institution

Fac. of Phys., Warsaw Univ. of Technol., Poland

Volume

1

fYear

2004

fDate

4-8 July 2004

Firstpage

167

Abstract

Numerical simulations and experimental measurements of the one-dimensional discrete system based on nematic liquid crystal waveguides are presented. Periodicity in the refractive index distribution is obtained by low-frequency electric field. Additionally, strong optical nonlinearity due to the reorientation effect modifies the propagation of light in the investigated system. As a result the discrete diffraction can be changed by external electric field as well as by increasing the power of the guided light beam. Finally, the discrete spatial solitons at milliwatt light power levels and at a few millimeter lengths are also shown.

Keywords

light diffraction; light propagation; nematic liquid crystals; numerical analysis; optical solitons; optical waveguides; refractive index; discrete diffraction; discrete spatial solitons; light propagation; low-frequency electric field; nematic liquid crystal waveguides; numerical simulations; one-dimensional discrete system; periodicity; refractive index distribution; reorientation effect; strong optical nonlinearity; Liquid crystals; Liquid waveguides; Numerical simulation; Optical diffraction; Optical propagation; Optical refraction; Optical solitons; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides; Refractive index;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Transparent Optical Networks, 2004. Proceedings of 2004 6th International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8343-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICTON.2004.1360269

Filename

1360269