Boundary induced motion of nematicons
by
Tim Marchant
University of Wollongong

Spatial solitary waves in bulk media result from a balance between the diffractive spreading of a light beam and nonlinear and/or nonlocal focusing. One particular nonlinear, nonlocal optical medium which has received much attention is a nematic liquid crystal, due in part to its large nonlinear response which allows nonlinear effects to be observed over small distances. A series of elegant experiments have shown that stable spatial solitary waves, so-called nematicons, can propagate in nematic liquid crystals.

A modulation theory is developed to describe the boundary induced motion of a nematicon in a one-dimensional cell and it is found that good agreement between the semi-analytical and numerical solutions is obtained. The role of nematicon shape and position to the boundaries in its evolution is discussed.

Date received: December 21, 2009