Light induced waveguides in nematic liquid crystals

Gaetano Assanto, Noel Smyth

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Spatial optical solitary waves in media with nonlinear refractive index are self-localized beams as well as waveguides induced by light. We review their guiding features in reorientational birefringent soft matter, namely nematic liquid crystals, for which a highly “nonlocal” response enhances the confinement, stabilization and robustness of the generated optical solitary waves, termed “nematicons.” The waveguiding properties of spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals are illustrated through the confinement of low power signals and other solitary waves, as well as optical vortices.
Original languageEnglish
Article number4400306
JournalIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Volume22
Issue number2
Early online date18 Jun 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2016

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