Propagation of optical solitons in a nematic waveguide

✍ Scribed by R.F. Rodriguez; J.A. Reyes

• Book ID: 104303829
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 528 KB
• Volume: 71
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-7322
• DOI: 10.1016/s0167-7322(97)00004-4

✦ Synopsis

The propagation of an optical wavepacket through a planar multimodal waveguide with a thermotropic nematic core is studied. We show that due to the coupling between the orientation and the TM modes of the wavepacket, the dynamics of the latter is nonlinear and is described by the Nonlinear SchSrdinger Equation (NLSE). In the weakly nonlinear limit (Kerr medium) and assuming that attenuation effects are small, we show that the TM modes may propagate as optical solitons alone the central part of the cell. Using experimental values of the dispersion relation for MBBA, we calculate the nonlinear refraction index as a function of the incidence angle and the power required to generate them. We find that the former exhibits a large optical nonlinearity and the latter is a tenth of a miliwatt. Finally, we discuss the limitations and possible generalizations of our model and give some concluding remarks.