Properties of nematicons in low-birefringent nematic liquid crystals

M. Kwasny, U.A. Laudyn, F.A. Sala, A. Piccardi, A. Alberucci, M.A. Karpierz, and G. Assanto

Phot. Lett. Pol. 4 (1), 2-4 (2013)

Abstract:

We investigate nonlinear self-focusing and nematicon generation in low birefringencenematic liquid crystals (NLCs), where n=0.04. Nematicons are obtained for larger optical powers but they are more than in NLCs with standard birefringence, of the order of n=0.2 Moreover, in low-birefringent NLCs, polarization components exchange energy in a nonlinear regime. Such behaviour is not observed in typical NLCs, where ordinary and extraordinary waves tend to propagate independently due to large walk off.The results of our experimental rest are also compared with numerical simulations, using a fully vectorial BPM. Calculations and experimental results are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement.