Nematicons: optical spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals

G. Assanto, M. Peccianti, and C. Conti

Opt. Photon. News 14, 44-48 (2003)

Abstract:

A nematicon is a self-trapped light-beam in a nematic liquid crystalline system. Through its optically nonlinear, saturable, nonlocal and nonresonant response, the material enables light to self-confine and guide additional optical signals, making an ideal test-bed for all-optical information processing.