2017/07/12 by Filip A. Sala, Noel F. Smyth, Sala, Filip A. +9
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #Nonlinear Photonic Systems #Nonlinear Waves and Solitons #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1707.03777
openalex publication_date 2017/07/12 · openalex created_date 2017/07/21 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In uniaxial soft matter with a reorientational nonlinearity, such as nematic liquid crystals, a light beam in the extraordinary polarization walks off its wavevector due to birefringence, while it undergoes self-focusing via an increase in refractive index and eventually forms a spatial soliton. Hereby the trajectory evolution of solitons in nematic liquid crystals- nematicons- in the presence of a linearly varying transverse orientation of the optic axis is analysed. In this study we use and compare two approaches: i) a slowly varying (adiabatic) approximation based on momentum conservation of the soliton in a Hamiltonian sense; ii) the Frank-Oseen elastic theory coupled with a fully vectorial and nonlinear beam propagation method. The models provide comparable results in such a non-homogeneously oriented uniaxial medium and predict curved soliton paths with either monotonic or non-monotonic curvatures. The minimal power needed to excite a solitary wave via reorientation remains essentially the same in both uniform and modulated cases.