Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Poy, Guilhem
• Hess, Andrew J.
• Smalyukh, Ivan I.
• Žumer, Slobodan

Titel

Chirality-Enhanced Periodic Self-Focusing of Light in Soft Birefringent Media

Ist Teil von

• Physical review letters, 2020-08, Vol.125 (7), p.1-077801, Article 077801

Ort / Verlag

College Park: American Physical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

American Physical Society

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We experimentally and numerically show that chirality can play a major role in the nonlinear optical response of soft birefringent materials, by studying the nonlinear propagation of laser beams in frustrated cholesteric liquid crystal samples. Such beams exhibit a periodic nonlinear response associated with a bouncing pattern for the optical fields, as well as a self-focusing effect enhanced by the chirality of the birefringent material. Our results open new possible designs of nonlinear optical devices with low power consumption and tunable interactions with localized topological solitons.