Re-addressable Interconnects with Light-Induced Waveguides in Liquid Crystals
Abstract
The theoretical and numerical analyses carried out with reference to finite light beams in anisotropic dielectrics enable us to deal with narrow beams in the non-paraxial approximation, both in the linear and in the nonlinear regimes, detailing roles and contributions of the uniaxial response, the induced non-locality, the asymmetry introduced by non-negligible longitudinal field components and the second derivatives in propagation. The detailed analysis of reorientational nematic liquid crystals allows us to model self-steering of spatial solitons in media with power-dependent walk-off via reorientation f the optic, a regime effectively addressable in experimental samples with E7 and planar geometries. In the second phase investigated soliton self-steering in undoped nematic liquid crystals with various initial orientations in the plane of propagation, i.e. self-deflection of nematicons owing to power-dependent reorientation of the optic axis. Introduced perturbative and nonperturbative regimes, the latter accounting for all-optical changes in walk-off. Reduced the complete 3D system to an equivalent 2D model retaining nonlocality. In the perturbative regime, found two scalar parameters describing soliton waist and walk-off versus 0. To verify the predictions, experimentally investigated nematicon propagation and self-steering in samples with various 0, obtaining an excellent agreement between data and numerics even in the presence of scattering losses which induce a decay of the nonlinear response along propagation. In the last phase introduced a novel concept for optical signal steering using spatial solitons and a voltage-tunable interface in nematic liquid crystals.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 09, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA547980
Entities
People
- Gaetano Assanto
Organizations
- Università degli Studi Roma Tre