Open AccessBreathing solitons in nematic liquid crystals
Author(s) -
Aleksandra I. Strinić,
Milan S. Petrović,
Dejan V. Timotijević,
Najdan B. Aleksić,
Milivoj R. Belić
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.011698
Subject(s) - liquid crystal , soliton , optics , beam (structure) , breather , physics , steady state (chemistry) , diffraction , intensity (physics) , condensed matter physics , materials science , nonlinear system , quantum mechanics , chemistry
Dynamical and steady-state behavior of beams propagating in nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) is analyzed. A well-known model for the beam propagation and the director reorientation angle in a NLC cell is treated numerically in space and time. The formation of steady-state soliton breathers in a threshold region of beam intensities is displayed. Below the region the beams diffract, above the region spatiotemporal instabilities develop, as the input intensity and the material parameters are varied. Curiously, the only kind of solitons we could demonstrate in our numerical studies was the breathers. Despite repeated efforts, we could not find the solitons with a steady profile propagating in the NLC model at hand.