Discrete light propagation and self-trapping in liquid crystals

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...

Self-Trapping of Light and Nonlinear Localized Modes in 2D Photonic Crystals and Waveguides

Propagation of Incoherently Coupled Soliton Pairs in Photorefractive Crystals and their Self-Deflection

Propagation of incoherently soliton pairs in photorefractive crystals under steady-state conditions is studied. These soliton states can be generated when the two mutually incoherent optical beams with the same polarization and wavelength incident on the biased photorefractive crystal. Such soliton pairs can exist in bright-bright, dark-dark, gray-gray as well as in bright-dark types. In this p...

Light interacting with liquid crystals

In this paper we describe laser light interacting with nematic liquid crystals. The paper begins with a summary of recent experimental results of E. Braun, L. Faucbeux, and A. Libchaber in which the liquid crystal sample is studied in three geometries film, pipe, and droplet. Then, after a very brief glimpse at the history of liquid crystals, a theoretical model of the interacting system is des...

Self-trapping and stable localized modes in nonlinear photonic crystals.

We predict the existence of stable nonlinear localized modes near the band edge of a two-dimensional reduced-symmetry photonic crystal with a Kerr nonlinearity. Employing the technique based on the Green function, we reveal a physical mechanism of the mode stabilization associated with the effective nonlinear dispersion and long-range interaction in the photonic crystals.