We study experimentally the propagation dynamics and interaction of a pair of mutually incoherent nematicons: spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals. In contrast to earlier studies, we consider a bias-free liquid-crystal cell and compare the soliton interaction in copropagating and counterpropagating geometries. We analyze the dependence of nematicon interaction on input power and observe a direct manifestation of a long-range nonlocal nonlinearity. Attraction of counterpropagating solitons requires higher powers and longer relaxation times than that of copropagating nematicons due to losses-induced power asymmetry of counterpropagating nematicons. [DOI: 10.2971/jeos.2010.10008]
Izdebskaya, Y., Shvedov, V., Desyatnikov, A., Krolikowski, W., Assanto, G., Kivshar, Y. (2010). Incoherent interaction of nematicons in bias-free liquid-crystal cells. JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN OPTICAL SOCIETY. RAPID PUBLICATIONS, 5 [10.2971/jeos.2010.10008].
Incoherent interaction of nematicons in bias-free liquid-crystal cells
ASSANTO, GAETANO;
2010-01-01
Abstract
We study experimentally the propagation dynamics and interaction of a pair of mutually incoherent nematicons: spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals. In contrast to earlier studies, we consider a bias-free liquid-crystal cell and compare the soliton interaction in copropagating and counterpropagating geometries. We analyze the dependence of nematicon interaction on input power and observe a direct manifestation of a long-range nonlocal nonlinearity. Attraction of counterpropagating solitons requires higher powers and longer relaxation times than that of copropagating nematicons due to losses-induced power asymmetry of counterpropagating nematicons. [DOI: 10.2971/jeos.2010.10008]I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
