Power-dependent nematicon steering via walk-off

We investigate soliton self-steering owing to the power-dependent walk-off in undoped nematic liquid crystals. The theoretical analysis, carried out in three dimensions and then reduced to an effective two-dimensional model retaining the nonlocal features, clarifies the trade-off between self-focusing and self-steering, as mediated by the initial orientation of the optic axis. Experimental results obtained in planar cells are in excellent agreement with the predictions, even when employing the two-dimensional model and in the presence of linear losses. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America