Dark Spatial Solitons in Liquid Crystals

A. Piccardi, A. Alberucci and G. Assanto

Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 558, 168-175 (2012)

Abstract:

We demonstrate the generation and propagation of dark spatial solitons in dye-doped nematic liquid crystals, exploiting a defocusing nonlinearity stemming from a reduced order parameter. Good agreement is obtained between the experimental measurements and a simplified model. Moreover, a probe beam is used to confirm the guiding properties of the soliton.