Modulation analysis of boundary-induced motion of optical solitary waves in a nematic liquid crystal

Alessandro Alberucci*, Gaetano Assanto, Daniel Buccoliero, Anton S. Desyatnikov, Timothy R. Marchant, Noel F. Smyth

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    28 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We consider the motion of a solitary wave, a nematicon, in a finite cell filled with a nematic liquid crystal. A modulation theory is developed to describe the boundary-induced bouncing of a nematicon in a one-dimensional cell and it is found to give predictions in very good agreement with numerical solutions. The boundary-induced motion is then considered numerically for a two-dimensional cell and a simple extension of the modulation theory from one to two space dimensions is then made, with good agreement being found with numerical solutions for the nematicon trajectory. The role of nematicon shape and relative position to the boundaries in its evolution is discussed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number043816
    JournalPhysical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
    Volume79
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2009

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