HIGHLY NONLOCAL OPTICAL SOLITONS AND THEIR OBSERVATION IN NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTALS

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (20n21) ◽  
pp. 2819-2828 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAETANO ASSANTO ◽  
CLAUDIO CONTI ◽  
MARCO PECCIANTI
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Crystals ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽  
Optical Solitons ◽  
Spatial Solitons ◽  
Specific System ◽  
Arbitrary Degree ◽  
Self Focusing ◽  
Remarkable Agreement

We investigate 2-dimensional spatial optical solitons in media exhibiting a large nonlocal response coupled with a self-focusing nonlinearity. To this extent, with reference to a specific system in undoped nematic liquid crystals, we develop a general theory of spatial solitons in media with an arbitrary degree of nonlocality and carry out experimental observations to validate the model. The remarkable agreement between predictions and data yields evidence of narrow-waist solitons, revealing an important connection between nonparaxiality and nonlocality and emphasizing the role of nonlocality.

scholarly journals REFRACTION OF NONLINEAR LIGHT BEAMS IN NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTALS

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (03) ◽  
pp. 1250033 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAETANO ASSANTO ◽  
NOEL F. SMYTH ◽  
WENJUN XIA
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Liquid Crystals ◽  
Solitary Waves ◽  
Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽  
Optical Solitons ◽  
Numerical Results ◽  
Dielectric Interface ◽  
Modulation Theory ◽  
Light Beams

We use modulation theory to analyze the interaction of optical solitons and vortices with a dielectric interface between two regions of nematic liquid crystals. In the analysis we consider the role of nonlocality, anisotropy and nonlinear reorientation and compare modulation theory results with numerical results. Upon interacting with the interface, nematicons undergo transverse distortion but remain stable and eventually return to a steady state, whereas vortices experience an enhanced instability and can break up into bright beams or solitary waves.

scholarly journals Supermode spatial solitons via competing nonlocal nonlinearities

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pawel Stanislaw Jung ◽  
Miroslaw Karpierz ◽  
Marek Trippenbach ◽  
Demetrios Christodoulides ◽  
Wieslaw Krolikowski
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Crystals ◽  
Soft Matter ◽  
Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽  
Power Level ◽  
Optical Solitons ◽  
Spatial Soliton ◽  
Spatial Solitons ◽  
Quantum Electron ◽  
Spatial Optical Solitons ◽  
Nonlocal Nonlinearities

We study spatial soliton formation in a system with competing nonlinearities. In doing so, we consider a specific nonlinear response that involves both focusing and defocusing nonlocal contributions. We demonstrate that at a sufficiently high input power level, the interplay between these nonlocal nonlinearities may lead to the formation of in-phase, two-hump, fundamental spatial solitons. The conditions required for the existence of these two-peak spatial solitons are also presented. Full Text: PDF ReferencesG. Stegeman and M. Segev, "Optical Spatial Solitons and Their Interactions: Universality and Diversity", Science 286, 1518 (1999). CrossRef Y. Kivshar and G. P. Agrawal, Optical Solitons: From Fibers to Photonic Crystals (Academic, San Diego, 2003).P. Varatharajah et al., "Stationary nonlinear surface waves and their stability in diffusive Kerr media", Opt. Lett. 13, 690 (1988). CrossRef G. Assanto and M. Peccianti, "Spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals," IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 39, 13 (2003). CrossRef G. Assanto, ed. Nematicons: Spatial Optical Solitons in Nematic Liquid Crystals (Wiley, 2012). CrossRef O. Bang, W. Krolikowski, J. Wyller, J.J. Rasmussen, "Collapse arrest and soliton stabilization in nonlocal nonlinear media", Phys. Rev. E 66, 046619 (2002). CrossRef X. Hutsebaut, C. Cambournac, M. Haelterman, A. Adamski, K. Neyts, "Single-component higher-order mode solitons in liquid crystals," Opt. Commun. 333, 211 (2004). CrossRef C. Conti, M. Peccianti, and G. Assanto, "Route to nonlocality and observation of accessible solitons," Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 073901 (2003). CrossRef U. A. Laudyn, P. S. Jung, M.A. Karpierz, and G. Assanto, "Quasi two-dimensional astigmatic solitons in soft chiral metastructures," Sci. Rep. 6, 22923 (2016). CrossRef U. A. Laudyn, P. S. Jung, M. A. Karpierz, G. Assanto, "Power-induced evolution and increased dimensionality of nonlinear modes in reorientational soft matter," Opt. Lett. 39(22), 6399–6402 (2014). CrossRef Y. V. Izdebskaya, V. G. Shvedov, P. S. Jung, and W. Krolikowski, "Stable vortex soliton in nonlocal media with orientational nonlinearity," Opt. Lett. 43, 66-69 (2018) CrossRef P.S. Jung, W. Krolikowski, U.A. Laudyn, M. Trippenbach and M.A. Karpierz, "Supermode spatial optical solitons in liquid crystals with competing nonlinearities", Phys. Rev. A 95, 023820 (2017) CrossRef P.S. Jung, W. Krolikowski, U.A. Laudyn, M.A. Karpierz and M. Trippenbach, "Semi-analytical approach to supermode spatial solitons formation in nematic liquid crystals", Opt. Express 25, 23893 (2017) CrossRef S. Jungling and J. C. Chen, "A study and optimization of eigenmode calculations using the imaginary-distance beam-propagation method", IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 30, 2098 (1994). CrossRef P.S. Jung, K. Rutkowska and M.A. Karpierz, "Evanescent field boundary conditions for modelling of light propagation", Journal of Computational Science 25, 115 (2018) CrossRef A.A. Hardy, W. Streifer, "Coupled mode theory of parallel waveguides," IEEE J. Lightwave Techn. LT-3, 1135 (1985) CrossRef M. Matuszewski, B.A. Malomed, and M. Trippenbach, "Spontaneous symmetry breaking of solitons trapped in a double channel potential," Phys. Rev. A 75, 063621 (2007) CrossRef

Incoherent spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.G. Makris ◽  
H. Sarkissian ◽  
D.N. Christodoulides ◽  
G. Assanto
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Crystals ◽  
Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽  
Spatial Solitons

scholarly journals Three-color vector nematicon

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urszula Anna Laudyn ◽  
Michał Kwaśny ◽  
Mirosław Karpierz ◽  
Gaetano Assanto
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Liquid Crystals ◽  
Solitary Waves ◽  
Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽  
Spatial Solitons ◽  
Curvature Effects ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Color Vector ◽  
Optical Spatial Solitons ◽  
Nonlocal Media

Light localization via reorientation in nematic liquid crystals supports multi-component optical spatial solitons, i.e., vector nematicons. By launching three optical beams of different wavelengths and the same input polarization in a bias-free planar cell, we demonstrate a three-color vector nematicon which is self-trapped thanks to its incoherent nature. Full Text: PDF ReferencesG. I. Stegeman and M. Segev, "Optical Spatial Solitons and Their Interactions: Universality and Diversity", Science 286 (5444), 1518 (1999) CrossRef W. Królikowski and O. Bang, "Solitons in nonlocal nonlinear media: Exact solutions", Phys. Rev. E 63, 016610 (2000) CrossRef D. Suter and T. Blasberg, "Stabilization of transverse solitary waves by a nonlocal response of the nonlinear medium", Phys. Rev. A 48, 4583 (1993) CrossRef G. Assanto and M. Peccianti, "Spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals", IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 39 (1), 13 (2003). CrossRef G. Assanto and M. Karpierz, "Nematicons: self-localised beams in nematic liquid crystals", Liq. Cryst. 36 (10), 1161 (2009) CrossRef M. Peccianti and G. Assanto, "Nematicons", Phys. Rep. 516, 147 (2012). CrossRef M. Peccianti and G. Assanto, "Incoherent spatial solitary waves in nematic liquid crystals", Opt. Lett. 26 (22), 1791 (2001) CrossRef M. Peccianti and G. Assanto, "Nematic liquid crystals: A suitable medium for self-confinement of coherent and incoherent light", Phys. Rev. E Rap. Commun. 65, 035603 (2002) CrossRef G. Assanto, M. Peccianti, C. Umeton, A. De Luca and I. C. Khoo, "Coherent and Incoherent Spatial Solitons in Bulk Nematic Liquid Crystals", Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 375, 617 (2002) CrossRef A. Alberucci, M. Peccianti, G. Assanto, A. Dyadyusha and M. Kaczmarek, "Two-Color Vector Solitons In Nonlocal Media", Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 153903 (2006) CrossRef G. Assanto, N. F. Smyth and A. L. Worthy, "Two-color, nonlocal vector solitary waves with angular momentum in nematic liquid crystals", Phys. Rev. A 78 (1), 013832 (2008) CrossRef G. Assanto, K. Garcia-Reimbert, A. A. Minzoni, N. F. Smyth and A. Worthy, "Lagrange solution for three wavelength solitary wave clusters in nematic liquid crystals", Physica D 240, 1213 (2011) CrossRef G. Assanto, A. A. Minzoni and N. F. Smyth, "Vortex confinement and bending with nonlocal solitons", Opt. Lett. 39 (3), 509 (2014) CrossRef G. Assanto, A. A. Minzoni and N. F. Smyth, "Deflection of nematicon-vortex vector solitons in liquid crystals", Phys. Rev. A 89, 013827 (2014) CrossRef G. Assanto and N. F. Smyth, "Soliton Aided Propagation and Routing of Vortex Beams in Nonlocal Media", J. Las. Opt. Photon. 1, 105 (2014) CrossRef Y. V. Izdebskaya, G. Assanto and W. Krolikowski, "Observation of stable-vector vortex solitons", Opt. Lett. 40 (17), 4182 (2015) CrossRef Y. V. Izdebskaya, W. Krolikowski, N. F. Smyth and G. Assanto, "Vortex stabilization by means of spatial solitons in nonlocal media", J. Opt. 18 (5), 054006 (2016) CrossRef J. F. Henninot, J. Blach and M. Warenghem, "Experimental study of the nonlocality of spatial optical solitons excited in nematic liquid crystal", J. Opt. A 9, 20 (2007) CrossRef Y. V. Izdebskaya, V. G. Shvedov, A. S. Desyatnikov, W. Z. Krolikowski, M. Belic, G. Assanto and Y. S. Kivshar, "Counterpropagating nematicons in bias-free liquid crystals", Opt. Express 18 (4), 3258 (2010) CrossRef N. Karimi, A. Alberucci, M. Virkki, M. Kauranen and G. Assanto, "Phase-front curvature effects on nematicon generation", J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 5 (33), 903 (2016) CrossRef P. G. de Gennes and J. Prost, The Physics of Liquid Crystals, Oxford Science Publications (Clarendon Press, 2nd edition, 1993)I. C. Khoo, Liquid Crystals: Physical Properties and Nonlinear Optical Phenomena (Wiley, New York, 1995)A. Piccardi, M. Trotta, M. Kwasny, A. Alberucci, R. Asquini, M. Karpierz, A. d'Alessandro and G. Assanto, "Trends and trade-offs in nematicon propagation", Appl. Phys. B 104 (4), 805 (2011) CrossRef M. Kwasny, U. A. Laudyn, F. A. Sala, A. Alberucci, M. A. Karpierz and G. Assanto, "Self-guided beams in low-birefringence nematic liquid crystals", Phys. Rev. A 86 (1), 01382 (2012) CrossRef M. Peccianti, A. Fratalocchi and G. Assanto, "Transverse dynamics of nematicons", Opt. Express 12 (26), 6524 (2004) CrossRef C. Conti, M. Peccianti and G. Assanto, "Observation of Optical Spatial Solitons in a Highly Nonlocal Medium", Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (11), 113902 (2004) CrossRef A. Alberucci, C.-P. Jisha and G. Assanto, "Breather solitons in highly nonlocal media", J. Opt. 18, 125501 (2016) CrossRef

Dynamics of Optical Solitons in Bias-Free Nematic Liquid Crystals

Nematicons ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 159-176
Author(s):  
Yana V. Izdebskaya ◽  
Anton S. Desyatnikov ◽  
Yuri S. Kivshar
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Crystals ◽  
Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽  
Optical Solitons

scholarly journals Addressable Refraction and Curved Soliton Waveguides Using Electric Interfaces

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenio Fazio ◽  
Massimo Alonzo ◽  
Alessandro Belardini
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Crystals ◽  
Nematic Liquid Crystals ◽  
Total Reflection ◽  
Spatial Solitons ◽  
The Past ◽  
Curved Structures ◽  
Electro Optic ◽  
Propagation Losses ◽  
Complex Circuits

A great deal of interest over the years has been directed to the optical space solitons for the possibility of realizing 3D waveguides with very low propagation losses. A great limitation in their use for writing complex circuits is represented by the impossibility of making curved structures. In the past, solitons in nematic liquid crystals, called nematicons, were reflected on electrical interfaces, and more recently photorefractive spatial solitons have been, as well. In the present work, we investigate refraction and total reflection of spatial solitons with saturable electro-optic nonlinearity, such as the photorefractive ones, on an electric wall acting as a reflector. Using a custom FDTD code, the propagation of a self-confined beam was analyzed as a function of the applied electric bias. The electrical reflector was simulated by applying different biases in two adjacent volumes. We observed both smaller and larger angles of refraction, up to the critical π/2-refraction condition, and then the total reflection. The radii of curvature of the associated guides can be varied from centimeters down to hundreds of microns. The straight guides showed losses as low as 0.07 dB/cm as previously observed, while the losses associated with single curves were estimated to be as low as 0.2 dB.

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