Title :
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
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;
Conference_Titel :
Transparent Optical Networks, 2004. Proceedings of 2004 6th International Conference on
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8343-5
DOI :
10.1109/ICTON.2004.1360269
