Abstract

We investigate total internal reflection of optical spatial solitons at the interface between two regions of nematic liquid crystals with different optical densities. Due to nonlinear molecular reorientation, the solitons experience a penetration depth, hence, a lateral shift that depends on the excitation, with lateral shifts from 0.7 to $1.2\mathrm{mm}$ as input powers increased from 1.6 to $9.3\mathrm{mW}$.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

Nematicons across interfaces: anomalous refraction and reflection of solitons in liquid crystals

Marco Peccianti and Gaetano Assanto
Opt. Express 15(13) 8021-8028 (2007)

Spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals: from bulk to discrete

G. Assanto, A. Fratalocchi, and M. Peccianti
Opt. Express 15(8) 5248-5259 (2007)

Nonlinear bouncing of nonlocal spatial solitons at the boundaries

Alessandro Alberucci, Marco Peccianti, and Gaetano Assanto
Opt. Lett. 32(19) 2795-2797 (2007)

Helmholtz solitons at nonlinear interfaces

J. Sánchez-Curto, P. Chamorro-Posada, and G. S. McDonald
Opt. Lett. 32(9) 1126-1128 (2007)

Vector soliton fission by reflection at nonlinear interfaces

Fangwei Ye, Yaroslav V. Kartashov, and Lluis Torner
Opt. Lett. 32(4) 394-396 (2007)