Discrete propagation and spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals.

We investigate, for the first time to our knowledge, the discrete propagation of near-infrared light in a voltage-controlled array of channel waveguides in undoped nematic liquid crystals under planar anchoring conditions. This novel geometry enables us to drive the system from one-dimensional bulk diffraction to discrete propagation and, for larger excitations, to discrete spatial solitons, or nematicons. The observed phenomena are adequately described by a scalar model that encompasses the voltage-dependent reorientational response of the material.

[1]  M. Peccianti,et al.  Nematic liquid crystals: a suitable medium for self-confinement of coherent and incoherent light. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[2]  D. Christodoulides,et al.  Discrete self-focusing in nonlinear arrays of coupled waveguides. , 1988, Optics letters.

[3]  C. Umeton,et al.  NONLOCAL OPTICAL PROPAGATION IN NONLINEAR NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTALS , 2003 .

[4]  Marco Peccianti,et al.  Spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals , 2003 .

[5]  G. W. Gray,et al.  Physical Properties of Liquid Crystals , 2003 .

[6]  Demetrios N. Christodoulides,et al.  Blocking and Routing Discrete Solitons in Two-Dimensional Networks of Nonlinear Waveguide Arrays , 2001 .

[7]  Yaron Silberberg,et al.  Discretizing light behaviour in linear and nonlinear waveguide lattices , 2003, Nature.

[8]  Tal Carmon,et al.  Observation of discrete solitons in optically induced real time waveguide arrays. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[9]  J. S. Aitchison,et al.  Discrete Spatial Optical Solitons in Waveguide Arrays , 1998 .

[10]  Marco Peccianti,et al.  Nematicons: Optical Spatial Solitons in Nematic Liquid Crystals , 2003 .

[11]  Marco Peccianti,et al.  Nonlocal spatial soliton interactions in nematic liquid crystals. , 2002, Optics letters.

[12]  G. Abbate,et al.  Bulk Optical Fréedericksz Effect: Non Linear Optics of Nematics Liquid Crystals in Capillaries , 1998 .

[13]  A. Scott,et al.  Binding energy versus nonlinearity for a small stationary soliton , 1983 .

[14]  Yuri S. Kivshar,et al.  Spatial optical solitons in waveguide arrays , 2003 .

[15]  Libchaber,et al.  Strong self-focusing in nematic liquid crystals. , 1993, Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

[16]  R. Morandotti,et al.  Band-gap structure of waveguide arrays and excitation of Floquet-Bloch solitons. , 2003, Physical review letters.

[17]  Wieslaw Krolikowski,et al.  Spatial solitons in optically induced gratings. , 2003, Optics letters.

[18]  Marco Peccianti,et al.  Route to nonlocality and observation of accessible solitons. , 2003, Physical Review Letters.

[19]  Mordechai Segev,et al.  Discrete solitons in photorefractive optically induced photonic lattices. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[20]  M. Karpierz Solitary waves in liquid crystalline waveguides. , 2002, Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics.

[21]  Demetrios N. Christodoulides,et al.  Observation of two-dimensional discrete solitons in optically induced nonlinear photonic lattices , 2003, Nature.

[22]  Iam-Choon Khoo,et al.  Electrically assisted self-confinement and waveguiding in planar nematic liquid crystal cells , 2000 .