Dark Spatial Solitons in Liquid Crystals

Abstract

We demonstrate the generation and propagation of dark spatial solitons in dye-doped nematic liquid crystals, exploiting a defocusing nonlinearity stemming from a reduced order parameter. Good agreement is obtained between the experimental measurements and a simplified model. Moreover, a probe beam is used to confirm the guiding properties of the soliton.

Keywords:

• Dark solitons
• dye-doped nematic liquid crystals
• order parameter

7. Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. N. Tabyrian and Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Company (USA) for providing the samples. A. A. thanks “Regione Lazio” for a generous grant.