All-optical measurement of elastic constants in nematic liquid crystals

In this article we present a new all-optical method to measure elastic constants connected with twist and bend deformations. The method is based on the optical Freedericksz threshold effect induced by the linearly polarized electro-magnetic wave. In the experiment elastic constants are measured of commonly used liquid crystals 6CHBT and E7 and two new nematic mixtures with low birefringence. The proposed method is neither very sensitive on the variation of cell thickness, beam waist or the power of a light beam nor does it need any special design of a liquid crystal cell. The experimental results are in good agreement with the values obtain by other methods based on an electro-optical effect

Observation of light-induced reorientational effects in periodic structures with planar nematic-liquid-crystal defects

We report on the experimental studies of the light-induced reorientational effects in a one-dimensional periodic photonicstructure with an embedded planar nematic-liquid-crystal defect. We demonstrate that in the presence of a periodic structure, the self-action of light in a liquid-crystal layer demonstrates sharp power-dependent characteristics for the intensity-dependent optical transmission. Robustness of the effect suggests its applications for all-optical tunable photonic devices.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council through Discovery and Center of Excellence projects

Linear and nonlinear light beam propagation in chiral nematic liquid crystal waveguides

We employ a thick layer of chiral nematic liquid crystals to demonstrate the evolution of a one-dimensional (1D) higher-order guided mode into a beam self-confined in both transverse dimensions at various wavelengths. We also report the experimental observation of higher-order modes guided by soliton-induced waveguides in chiral nematic liquid crystals.Peer reviewe

Supermode spatial optical solitons in liquid crystals with competing nonlinearities

We study numerically the formation of spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals with competing nonlocal nonlinearities. We demonstrate that at a sufficiently high input power the interplay between focusing and thermally induced defocusing may lead to the formation of two-peak fundamental spatial solitons. These solitons have a constant spatial phase and hence represent supermodes of the self-induced extended waveguide structure. We show that these two-peak solitons are stable in propagation and exhibit an adiabatic transition to a single-peak state under weak absorptionThis work was supported by the Qatar National Research Fund (Grant No. NPRP8-246-1-060) and the Polish National Science Centre (Grant No. UMO-2012/06/M/ST2/00479)

Self-confined light waves in nematic liquid crystals

The study of light beams propagating in the nonlinear, dispersive, birefringent and nonlocal medium of nematic liquid crystals has attracted widespread interest in the last twenty years or so. We review hereby the underlying physics, theoretical modelling and numerical approximations for nonlinear beam propagation in planar cells filled with nematic liquid crystals, including bright and dark solitary waves, as well as optical vortices. The pertinent governing equations consist of a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation for the light beam and an elliptic equation for the medium response. Since the nonlinear and coupled nature of this system presents difficulties in terms of finding exact solutions, we outline the various approaches used to resolve them, pinpointing the good agreement obtained with numerical solutions and experimental results. Measurement and material details complement the theoretical narration to underline the power of the modelling

Accelerated optical solitons in reorientational media with transverse invariance and longitudinally modulated birefringence

We demonstrate that reorientational spatial solitons can curve when propagating in a medium with engineered walk-off along the direction of propagation. In this regard, we employ nematic liquid crystals with molecular anchoring defined by electron-beam lithography and optic axis distribution modulated in the longitudinal direction only, keeping the transverse orientation constant. The experimental results are in remarkably good agreement with a simple modulation theory based on momentum conservation

Mechanical analogies for nonlinear light beams in nonlocal nematic liquid crystals

The equations governing nonlinear light beam propagation in nematic liquid crystals form a (2+1)-dimensional system consisting of a nonlinear Schrödinger-type equation for the electric field of the wavepacket and an elliptic equation for the reorientational response of the medium. The latter is "nonlocal" in the sense that it is much wider than the size of the beam. Due to these nonlocal, nonlinear features, there are no known general solutions of the nematic equations; hence, approximate methods have been found convenient to analyze nonlinear beam propagation in such media, particularly the approximation of solitary waves as mechanical particles moving in a potential. We review the use of dynamical equations to analyze solitary wave propagation in nematic liquid crystals through a number of examples involving their trajectory control, including comparisons with experimental results from the literature. Finally, we make a few general remarks on the existence and stability of optically self-localized solutions of the nematic equations

Curved optical solitons subject to transverse acceleration in reorientational soft matter

We demonstrate that optical spatial solitons with non-rectilinear trajectories can be made to propagate in a uniaxial dielectric with a transversely modulated orientation of the optic axis. Exploiting the reorientational nonlinearity of nematic liquid crystals and imposing a linear variation of the background alignment of the molecular director, we observe solitons whose trajectories have either a monotonic or a non-monotonic curvature in the observation plane of propagation, depending on either the synergistic or counteracting roles of wavefront distortion and birefringent walk-off, respectively. The observed effect is well modelled in the weakly nonlinear regime using momentum conservation of the self-collimated beams in the presence of the spatial nonlocality of the medium response. Since reorientational solitons can act as passive waveguides for other weak optical signals, these results introduce a wealth of possibilities for all-optical signal routing and light-induced photonic interconnects