Temporal dynamics of light-written waveguides in unbiased liquid crystals

Alessandro Alberucci, Raouf Barboza, Chandroth P. Jisha, Stefan Nolte

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    Abstract

    The control of light by light is one of the main aims in modern photonics. In this context, a fundamental cornerstone is the realization of light-written waveguides in real time, resulting in all-optical reconfigurability of communication networks. Light-written waveguides are often associated with spatial solitons, that is, non-diffracting waves due to a nonlinear self-focusing effect in the harmonic regime. From an applicative point of view, it is important to establish the temporal dynamics for the formation of such light-written guides. Here, we investigate theoretically the temporal dynamics in nematic liquid crystals, a material where spatial solitons can be induced using continuous wave lasers with a few milliwatts of power. We fully address the role of the spatial walk-off and the longitudinal nonlocality in the waveguide formation. We show that for powers large enough to induce light self-steering the beam undergoes several fluctuations before reaching the stationary regime, in turn leading to a much longer formation time for the light-written waveguide.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1878-1887
    Number of pages10
    JournalJournal of the Optical Society of America B: Optical Physics
    Volume35
    Issue number8
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018
    Publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Publication forum classification

    • Publication forum level 1

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
    • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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