Alberucci Alessandro, Kravets Nina, Piccardi Armando, Buchnev Oleksandr, Kaczmarek Malgosia, Assanto Gaetano
Opt Express. 2014 Dec 15;22(25):30663-8. doi: 10.1364/OE.22.030663.
We investigate, both theoretically and experimentally, self-trapping of light beams in nematic liquid crystals arranged so as to exhibit the optical Fréedericksz transition in planar cells. The resulting threshold in the nonlinear reorientational response supports a bistable behavior between diffracting and self-localized beam states, leading to the appearance of a hysteretic loop versus input excitation. Our results confirm the role of nematic liquid crystals in the study of non-perturbative nonlinear photonics.
