Nonlinear optics and optoelectronics Lab - Cubic nonlinear effects: self-focusing and modulation instability in glasses

Non locality and nonlinearity in reorientational media: nematic liquid crystals

Theoretical, numerical and experimental investigation of nonlinear optics in nematic liquid crystals, including reorientational, thermo-optic and dissipative (with gain) nonlinear responses, nonlocal spatial solitons, routing, interactions and transverse modulational instability. Nematic liquid crystals are investigated in planar cells and in light valves, in the presence of various anchoring mechanisms, dopants, distribution of applied voltage(s) and external light beams.

Collaborations

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

Institut Non LinÃ©aire de Nice, UniversitÃ© de Nice "Sophia Antipolis" , Nice, France

Department of Electrical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia, USA

Department of Physics, University of Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy

School of Mathematics, The Kingâ€™s Buildings, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Department of Mathematics and Mechanics, Instituto de InvestigaciÃ³n en MatemÃ¡ticas Aplicadas y Sistemas (IIMAS), Universidad Nacional AutÃ³noma de MÃ©xico, Distrito Federal, MÃ©xico

People

Gaetano Assanto, Marco Peccianti, Raouf Barboza, Armando Piccardi, Alessandro Alberucci

Related publications

2024

Counterpropagating optical solitary waves in orientation-modulated nematic liquid crystals: Wave Motion, In Press
Nonreciprocal nematicon propagation: Proc. SPIE 13016, Liquid Crystals Optics and Photonic Devices, 130160K
Nematonics: from physics to photonics of reorientational solitons: Liquid Crystals

2023

Direction-dependent optical solitary waves in nematic liquid crystals: Phys. Rev. A 108 (4), 053509
Nonreciprocal Propagation of Nematicons: MDPI Photonics 10 (10), 1144

2021

Multihump thermo-reorientational solitary waves in nematic liquid crystals: Modulation theory solutions: Phys. Rev. A, 104

2020

Spin-optical solitons in liquid crystals: Phys. Rev. A 102, 033501
Optothermal vortex-solitons in liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 45 (8), 2451
Vortex nematicons in planar cells: Optics Express, 28 (6)

2019

Temperature control of nematicon trajectories: Physical Review E, 100
Spatiospectral features of a soliton-assisted random laser in liquid crystals: Optics Letters, 44 (14)
Thermo-optic soliton routing in nematic liquid crystals: erratum: Optics Letters, 44 (9)
Spatiospectral features of a soliton-assisted random laser in liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 44 (14), 3574-7
Electro-optic quenching of nematicon fluctuations: Optics Letters, 44(1)

2018

Nematicons: reorientational solitons from optics to photonics: Liquid Crystals Reviews, 6 (2)
Mechanical analogies for nonlinear light beams in nonlocal nematic liquid crystals: Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics & Materials, 27 (4)
Electro-optic steering of random laser emission in liquid crystals: Photonics Letters of Poland, 10 (4)
Electro-optic quenching of nematicon fluctuations: Optics Letters, 44 (1)
Interplay of Thermo-Optic and Reorientational Responses in Nematicon Generation: Materials, 11(10)
Near-Infrared Switching of Light-Guided Random Laser: IEEE Photonics Journal, 10 (5)
Accelerated optical solitons in reorientational media with transverse invariance and longitudinally modulated birefringence: Phys. Rev. A 98, 023810
Thermo-optic soliton routing in nematic liquid crystals: erratum: Opt. Lett. 43, 2296-2299
Nematicons: reorientational solitons from optics to photonics: Liq. Cryst. Rev. 6 (2), 170-194 (Invited)
Mechanical analogies for nonlinear light beams in nonlocal nematic liquid crystals: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. Mat. 27(4), 1850046
Electro-optic steering of random laser emission in liquid crystals: Photon. Lett. Pol. 10 (4), 103-5
Interplay of Thermo-Optic and Reorientational Responses in Nematicon Generation: Materials, 11(10), 1837
Near-Infrared Switching of Light-Guided Random Laser: IEEE Photonics Journal, 10(5)
Accelerated optical solitons in reorientational media with transverse invariance and longitudinally modulated birefringence: Phys. Rev. A 98, 023810
Spatial solitons to mold random lasers in nematic liquid crystals [Invited]: Optical Materials Express Vol. 8, Issue 12, pp. 3864-3878 (2018)
Interplay of Thermo-Optic and Reorientational Responses in Nematicon Generation: Materials, Vol. 11, Iss. 10 (2018)
Beaming random lasers with soliton control: Nature Communications 9, 3863 (2018)
Thermo-optic soliton routing in nematic liquid crystals: Optics Letters Vol. 43, Issue 10, pp. 2296-229

2017

Nonlinear continuous-wave optical propagation in nematic liquid crystals: Interplay between reorientational and thermal effects: Phys. Rev. E 96, 012703
Nematicon-enhanced spontaneous symmetry breaking: Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Vol. 649, Iss. 1 (2017)
All-optical guided-wave random laser in nematic liquid crystals: Optics Express Vol. 25, Issue 5, pp. 4672-4679 (2017)
Erratum: \"Soliton-assisted random lasing in optically-pumped liquid crystals: Appl. Phys. Lett. 110 (1), 1019902 (2017)
Bistable beam propagation in liquid crystals: IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics Volume: 53, Issue: 1,
Interplay between diffraction and the Pancharatnam-Berry phase in inhomogeneously twisted anisotropic media: Phys. Rev. A 95, 023823 (2017)

2016

Highly nonlocal optical response: Benefit or drawback?: Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics & MaterialsVol. 25, No. 04, 1650043
Linear and nonlinear light beam propagation in chiral nematic liquid crystal waveguides: Photon. Lett. Pol. 8 (1), 1 (2016)
Quenching nematicon fluctuations via photostabilization: Photon. Lett. Pol. 8 (1), 2-4 (2016)
Nonlocal soliton scattering in random potentials: Journal of Optics, Volume 18, Number 7
Breather solitons in highly nonlocal media: Journal of Optics, Volume 18, Number 12
Quasi two-dimensional astigmatic solitons in soft chiral metastructures: Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 22923 doi:10.1038/srep22923
Soliton-assisted random lasing in optically-pumped liquid crystals: Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 161105 (2016)
Voltage-driven beam bistability in a reorientational uniaxial dielectric: APL Photonics 1, 011302 (2016)

2015

Nonlinear competition in nematicon propagation: Optics Letters Vol. 40, Issue 22, pp. 5235-5238 (2015)
Observation of stable vector vortex solitons: Opt. Lett. 40 (17), 4182-5 (2015)
Nonlinear negative refraction in reorientational soft matter?: Phys. Rev. A 92, 033835 (2015)
Soliton enhancement of sponaneous symmetry breaking: Optica 2 (9), 783-9 (2015)
Observation of beam self-induced transition from positive to negative optical refraction in nematic liquid crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 619 (1), 28-34 (2015)
Spatial optical solitons in highly nonlocal media: Phys. Rev. A 91, 013841 (2015)

2014

Nematic liquid crystals: An excellent playground for nonlocal nonlinear light localization in soft matter: J. Nonlinear Optic. Phys. Mat. 23, 1450046
Nematicons in planar cells subject to the optical Freedericksz threshold: Opt. Express 22 (25), 30663-30668 (2014)
Power-induced evolution and increased dimensionality of nonlinear modes in reorientational soft matter: Opt. Lett. 39 (22), 6399-6402 (2014)
Power-controlled transition from standard to negative refraction in reorientational soft matter: Nat. Commun. 5:5533 doi: 10.1038/ ncomms6533 (2014)
Beam hysteresis via reorientational self-focusing: Opt. Lett. 39, 5830-5833 (2014)
Accessible solitons in diffusive media: Opt. Lett. 39 (15), 4317-4320 (2014)
Bistability with Optical Beams Propagating in a Reorientational Medium: Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 023901 (2014)
Deflection of Nematicon-Vortex Vector Solitons in Liquid Crystals: Phys. Rev. A 89, 013827 (2014)
Vortex confinement and bending with the aid of nonlocal solitons: Opt. Lett. 39 (3), 509-512 (2014)

2013

Nematicons and their electro-optic control: light localization and signal readdressing via reorientation in liquid crystals: Int. J. Mol. Sci. 14 (10), 19932-19950 (2013)
Comment on "Solitons in highly nonlocal nematic liquid crystals: Variational approach": Phys. Rev. A 87 (4), 047801 (2013)
Deflection of nematicons through interaction with dielectric particles: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 30 (6), 1432-1437 (2013)
Properties of nematicons in low-birefringent nematic liquid crystals: Phot. Lett. Pol. 4 (1), 2-4 (2013)
Frequency-Controlled Routing of Self-Confined Beams in Nematic Liquid Crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 572 (1), 26-33 (2013)
Modeling nematicon propagation: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 572 (1), 2-12 (2013)
Optical Vortex Generation in Nematic Liquid Crystal Light Valves: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 572 (1), 24-30 (2013)
Interactions of accessible solitons with interfaces in anisotropic media: the case of uniaxial nematic liquid crystals: New J. Phys. 15, 043011 (2013)
Characterization of the vortex-pair interaction law and nonlinear mobility effects: New J. Phys. 15 (1), 013028 (2013)

2012

Power-Dependent Nematicon Self-Routing: Nematicons, Ed. G. Assanto, Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-90724-5 (2012)
Discrete Light Propagation in Arrays of Liquid Crystalline Waveguides: Nematicons, Ed. G. Assanto, Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-90724-5 (2012)
Nematicons in Light Valves: Nematicons, Ed. G. Assanto, Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-90724-5 (2012)
External Control of Nematicon Paths: Nematicons, Ed. G. Assanto, Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-90724-5 (2012)
Refraction of Nonlinear Light Beams in Nematic Liquid Crystals: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. Mat. 21 (3), 1250033 (1-21) (2012)
All-optical switching of a signal by a pair of interacting nematicons: Opt. Express 20 (22), 24701 (2012)
Frequency-controlled acceleration of spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals: Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 081112 (2012)
Nematicon waveguides: self-confined beams and their electric control: Appl. Phys. B 108, 177-182 (2012)
Self-guided beams in low-birefringence nematic liquid crystals: Phys. Rev. A 86, 013824 (2012)
In-plane steering of nematicon waveguides across an electrically tuned interface: Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 251107 (2012)
Nematicons in azobenzene liquid crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 559 (1), 202-213 (2012)
Dark Spatial Solitons in Liquid Crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 558, 168-175 (2012)
Electro-optic beam steering with nematicons: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 558, 12-21 (2012)
Tunable nonlinearity in nematicon physics: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 558, 2-11 (2012)
Parametric conversion in micrometer and sub-micrometer structured ferroelectric crystals by surface poling.: International Journal of Optics, Article ID 606892, (2012)
Electro-optic steering of nematicons: Phot. Lett. Pol. 4 (1), 2-4 (2012)
Scattering of reorientational optical solitons at dielectric perturbation: Phys. Rev. A 85 (1), 013804 (2012)

2011

An electro-optically tunable Bragg reflector based on liquid crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 549 (1), 62-8 (2011)
Nematicon self-steering: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 549, 1-9 (2011)
Transverse self-accelaration of nematicons: can a self-confined beam change its own path?: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. Mat. 20, 237-247 (2011)
Dipole azimuthons and charge-flipping in nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Express 19 (22), 21457-66 (2011)
Trends and trade-offs in nematicon propagation: Appl. Phys. B 104 (4), 805-11 (2011)
Modulation Analysis of Nonlinear Beam Refraction at an Interface in Liquid Crystals: Phys. Rev. A 84, 033818 (2011)
Large electro-optic beam steering with Nematicons: Opt. Lett. 36 (14), 2611–3 (2011)
Nematicon-nematicon interactions in a medium with tunable nonlinearity and fixed nonlocality: Opt. Lett. 36 (13), 2566-8 (2011)
Lagrange Solution for Three Wavelength Soliton Clusters in Nematic Liquid Crystals: Physica D 240, 1213-1219 (2011)
Optical Solitons and Wave-Particle Duality: Opt. Lett. 36 (10), 1848-50 (2011)
Non Paraxial Solitary waves in anisotropic dielectrics: Phys. Rev. A 83, 033822 (2011)
Multimode nematicon waveguides: Opt. Lett. 36 (2), 184-6 (2011)

2010

Power-dependent nematicon steering via walk-off: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27 (11), 2398-404 (2010)
Power-dependent nematicon steering via walk-off: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27, 2398-2404 (2010)
Refraction of Nonlinear Beams by Localised Refractive Index Changes in Nematic Liquid Crystals: Phys. Rev. A 82, 053843 (2010)
Enhancement of third harmonic generation in nonlocal spatial solitons: Opt. Lett. 35 (20), 3342 (2010)
Nematicons in Liquid Crystal Light Valves: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 527, 98-108 (2010)
Propagation of spatial optical solitons in a dielectric with adjustable nonlinearity: Phys. Rev. A 82, 023806 (2010)
Sub-milliwatt dissipative nematicons and spontaneous light emission in dye-doped nematic liquid crystals: Electron. Lett. 46, 790 (2010)
Nematicons beyond the perturbative regime: Opt. Lett. 35 (15), 2520-2 (2010)
Solitary wave propagation and steering through light-induced refractive potentials: Phys. Rev. A 81, 063811 (2010)
Self-turning self-confined light beams in guest-host media: Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 213904 (2010)
Space-Time Bullet Trains via modulation instability and nonlocal solitons: Opt. Express 18 (6), 593441 (2010)
Readdressable interconnects with spatial soliton waveguides in liquid crystal light valves: IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 22, 694 (2010)
Soliton gating and switching in liquid crystal light valve: Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 071104 (2010)
Soliton self-deflection via power-dependent walk-off: Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 061105 (2010)
Counterpropagating nematicons in bias-free liquid crystals: Opt. Express 18 (4), 3258-3263 (2010)
Nematicon All-optical control in liquid crystal light valves: Opt. Lett 35 (3), 390-2 (2010)

2009

Optical path control of solitary waves in dye-doped nematic liquid crystals: Photon. Lett. Pol. 1 (4), 154-156 (2009)
Liquid Crystal Light Valves: a versatile platform for Nematicons: Photon. Lett. Pol. 1 (4), 151-153 (2009)
Modulation analysis of boundary-induced motion of optical solitary waves in a nematic liquid crystal: Phys. Rev. A 79, 043816 (2009)
Nematicons in twisted liquid crystals: Photon. Lett. Pol. 1 (1), 7-9 (2009)
Nematicons escaping a wide trapping potential: modulation theory: Phys. Rev. A 79, 033837 (2009)
Voltage-driven in-plane steering of nematicons: Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 091106 (2009)
Spatial solitons in liquid crystal light valves: Opt. Lett. 34 (6), 737-739 (2009)
Collisionless shock resolution in nematic liquid crystals: Phys. Rev. A 78 (6), 063808 (2009)

2008

Incoherent interaction of nematicons in biasfree liquid crystal cells: J. Eur. Opt. Soc. 5, 10008--1-5 (2008)
All-optical steering of soliton waveguides in dye doped liquid crystals: Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 171104 (2008)
Escaping Solitons from a trapping potential: Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 153902 (2008)
Guiding and Bending Light at Will with Spatial Solitons in Liquid Crystals: Int. J. Microw. Opt. Techn. 3 (3), 370-6 (2008)

2007

Light induced angular steering via Floquet-Bloch band-tunneling in one-dimensional liquid crystalline photonic lattices: Opto-Electronics Rev. 15, 210-214 (2007)
Dissipative self-confined optical beams in doped nematic liquid crystals: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. & Mat. 16, 295-305 (2007)
Nonlinear bouncing of nonlocal spatial solitons at the boundaries: Opt. Lett. 32, 2795-2797 (2007)
Tunable wavelength-selective add-drop in Liquid Crystals on Silicon microresonator: Opt. Commun. 279, 210-213 (2007)
Propagation of optical spatial solitons in finite size media: interplay between non locality and boundary conditions: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 24, 2314-2320 (2007)
Nonlinear management of the angular momentum of soliton clusters: Theory and experiment: Phys. Rev. A 75, 063835 (2007)
Nematicons across interfaces: anomalous refraction and reflection of solitons in liquid crystals: Opt. Express 15, 8021-8028 (2007)
Routing light at will: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. & Mat. 16, 37-48 (2007)
Nonlinearly controlled angular momentum of soliton clusters: Opt. Lett. 32, 1447-1449 (2007)
Spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals: from bulk to discrete: Opt. Express 15, 5248-5259 (2007)
Discrete optics in liquid crystalline lattices: LEOS Newslett. 2, 11-16 (2007)
Nonspecular total internal reflection of spatial solitons at the interface between highly birefringent media: Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 113902 (2007)
Nonlinear shift of spatial solitons at a graded dielectric interface: Opt. Lett. 32, 271-273 (2007)

2006

Tunable refraction and reflection of self-confined light beams: Nature Phys. 2, 737-742 (2006)
Discrete light propagation and self-localization in voltage-controlled arrays of channel waveguides in undoped nematic liquid crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 453, 191-202 (2006)
Two-color vector solitons in nonlocal media: Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 153903 (2006)
Governing soliton splitting in one-dimensional lattices: Phys. Rev. E 73, 046603 (2006)
Nematicons and their angular steering: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. Mat. 15, 33-42 (2006)
All-optical Landau-Zener tunneling in waveguide arrays: Opt. Express 14, 2021-2026 (2006)
Spatial Soliton All-Optical Logic Gates: IEEE Photon. Techn. Lett. 18 , 1287-1289 (2006)

2005

Discrete light propagation and self-trapping in liquid crystals: Opt. Express 13, 1808-1815 (2005)
Interplay between nonlocality and nonlinearity in nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 30, 415-417 (2005)
All-optical switching and beam steering in tunable waveguide arrays: Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 51112-51114 (2005)
Nonlinear all-optical switch with nematic liquid crystals: Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 51109-51111 (2005)
Spectral evolution of an optical pattern in non local nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Express 13, 6476-6481 (2005)
Self-healing generation of spatial solitons in liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 30, 1381-1383 (2005)
Nematic Liquid Crystal Waveguide Arrays: Optoelectron. Rev. 13, 107-12 (2005)
Non local incoherent spatial solitons in liquid crystals: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 22, 1371-1377 (2005)
Electro-optic routing in a nematic liquid crystal waveguide: Appl. Opt. 44, 4136-4143 (2005)
Spatial solitons and modulational instability in the presence of large birefringence: The case of highly nonlocal liquid crystals: Phys. Rev. E 72, 066614 (2005)
Signal processing by opto-optical interactions between self-localized and free propagating beams in liquid crystals: Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 261104 (2005)
Discrete light localization in one-dimensional nonlinear lattices with arbitrary nonlocality: Phys. Rev. E 72, 066608 (2005)Form
Observation of power-dependent walk-off via modulation instability in nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 30, 2290-2292 (2005)
Optical multiband vector breathers in tunable waveguide arrays: Opt. Lett. 30, 174-176 (2005)
Spatially incoherent modulational instability in a non local medium: Laser Phys. Lett. 2, 25-29 (2005)
Integrated electro-optic switch in liquid crystals: Opt. Express 13, 32-37 (2005)

2004

Nonlinear Optics Applications: Bright Spatial Solitons: Encyclopedia of Modern Optics, Vol. 5, 43-55 (2004)
Discrete propagation and spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 29, 1530 (2004)
Observation of Optical Spatial Solitons in a Highly Nonlocal Medium: Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 113902 (2004)
Highly non-local optical solitons and their observation in nematic liquid crystals: Int. Mod. Phys. Lett. B 18, 2819-2828 (2004)
Spiraling and Cyclic Dynamics of Nematicons: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 421, 197-207 (2004)
Discrete optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 421, 61-68 (2004)
Routing of anisotropic spatial solitons and modulational instability in liquid crystals: Nature 432, 733-737 (2004)
One dimensional transverse modulational instability in nonlocal media witha reorientational nonlinearity: IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 10, 862-869 (2004)
Transverse dynamics of nematicons: Opt. Express 12, 6524-6529 (2004)

2003

Nonlocal Optical Propagation in Nonlinear Nematic Liquid Crystals: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. Mat 12, 525-538 (2003)
Optical multisoliton generation in nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 28(22), 2231-2233 (2003)
Nonlinear wave propagation and spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals: J. Nonl. Opt. Phys. Mat. 12, 123-134 (2003)
Optical modulational instability in a nonlocal medium: Phys. Rev. E 68, 025602 (2003)
Route to Nonlocality and Observation of Accessible Solitons: Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 73901-3 (2003)
Spatial Optical Solitons in bulk Nematic Liquid Crystals: Acta Phys. Pol. 103, 161-167 (2003)
Nematicons: optical spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Photon. News 14, 44-48 (2003)
Spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals: IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 39, 13-21 (2003)

2002

Self confinement of light in planar cells containing nematic liquid crystals: Radiotekhnika I Electronika 47, 874-880 (2002) (in Russian)
Nonlocal spatial soliton interactions in bulk nematic liquid crystals: Opt. Lett. 27, 1460-1462 (2002)
All-optical switching and logic gating with spatial solitons in liquid crystals: App. Phys. Lett. 81, 333-335 (2002)
Nematic Liquid Crystals: a suitable medium for self-confinement of Coherent and Incoherent Light: Phys. Rev. E 65, 035603-035606 (2002)
Coherent and Incoherent Spatial Solitons in Bulk Nematic Liquid Crystals: Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 375, 617-629 (2002)
Light Self-Confinement in Planar Cells with Nematic Liquid Crystals: J. Commun. Technol. Electron. 47, 790-795 (2002)

2001

Incoherent Spatial Solitary Waves in Nematic Liquid Crystals: Opt. Lett. 26, 1791-1793 (2001)
Signal readdressing by steering of spatial solitons in bulk Nematic Liquid Crystals: Opt. Lett. 26, 1690-1692 (2001)

2000

Electrically Assisted Self-Confinement and Waveguiding in planar Nematic Liquid Crystal cells: Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 7-9 (2000)