We present an overview of our recent experimental results on two-dimensional optical spatial solitons in voltage biased planar cells with nematic liquid crystals. Excitation, induced waveguiding, and interactions are illustrated and interpreted in terms of the inherent re-orientational, non-resonant and nonlocal nonlinear response.
In a waveguide for second-harmonic generation, a linear corrugation able to couple counterpropagating waves at the second-harmonic and/or at the fundamental frequency can induce localization effects through the formation of gap-simultons, i.e. bi-color gap-solitons. These can move slowly or be stationary, collide and merge. All-optical memories are envisaged.
Quadratic spatial solitons exist in media with second order nonlinearities near the phase-matching condition for frequency mixing processes involving two or three waves of different frequency. Discussed here are a number of properties of these special solitons which are different from those of other spatial solitons which rely on optically induced index changes for guiding. First, the self-guiding properties of quadratic solitons are shown to have completely different origins than solitons which rely on index changes. Second, it is shown that there exists a large variety of quadratic solitons which contain two or three distinct spectral components with relative amplitudes depending on the phase mismatch, dimensionality of the propagation geometry, the soliton power and the launching conditions. Third, under appropriate conditions, solitons can be formed even when the group velocity directions for the spectral components lead to walk-off under normal circumstances. Fourth, for type II phase-matching in bulk crystals, seeded interactions lead to saturating amplifier characteristics.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.