The investigation of an electrically stabilized optical spatial soliton induced in a nematic liquid crystal

摘要

A spatial soliton is induced between two optical fibres in a liquid crystal medium and the associated optical power transmitted is measured. The signaloise (S/N) ratio of the device is estimated and then improved by applying an extra voltage along the propagation axis. Besides this applicative result, which is the first step towards realistic optical switches, we show that the response curve of such a coupler gives information on the soliton propagation regime in a highly nonlocal medium, namely the longitudinal structure of the soliton envelope. In addition, it is shown that the extra voltage allows control of the nonlocality, approaching a Kerr-like medium for strong voltage.