279
Views
78
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Invited Articles

Nematicons: self-localised beams in nematic liquid crystals

&
Pages 1161-1172 | Received 21 Apr 2009, Accepted 11 May 2009, Published online: 18 Nov 2009
 

Abstract

We review the impressive progress on light self-localisation into spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals. We summarise the basic physics and models, outlining the main properties of nematicons and providing an overview of the most significant experimental achievements in undoped, planar, twisted and chiral nematic liquid crystals.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to various collaborators worldwide: R. Dąbrowski, M. Kaczmarek, I.C. Khoo, A.A. Minzoni, E. Nowinowski, S. Residori, M. Sierakowski, F. Simoni, N.F. Smyth, N. Tabiryan, C. Umeton and T.R. Wolinski. We are indebted to our students and associates over the years for the extensive contributions to the work reviewed hereby: A. Alberucci, C. Conti, A. Fratalocchi, K. Jaworowicz, M. Kwasny, U.A. Laudyn, A. Pasquazi, M. Peccianti, A. Piccardi and K.A. Rutkowska.

Work partially sponsored at UniRoma3 by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Material Command, USAF, under grant number FA8655-08-1-3045. The U.S Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purpose notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.