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Large Amplitude Nematicon Propagation In A Liquid Crystal With Local Response, Catherine Garcia-Reimbert, Antonmaria Minzoni, Noel Smyth, Annette L. Worthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The evolution of polarized light in a nematic liquid crystal whose directors have a local response to reorienta-tion by the light is analyzed for arbitrary input light power. Approximate equations describing this evolution are derived based on a suitable trial function in a Lagrangian formulation of the basic equations governing the electric fields involved. It is shown that the nonlinearity of the material response is responsible for the forma-tion of solitons, so-called nematicons, by saturating the nonlinearity of the governing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Therefore in the local material response limit, solitons are formed due to the nonlinear saturation behavior. It …