Lateral Light Propagation and Spatial Optical Solitons in Liquid Crystal Devices

摘要

Liquid crystals are nowadays massively used in display applications due to their extraordinary electro-optical properties. During the last years there is a growing interest to integrate these materials in optical telecommunication systems. This dissertation aims at the manipulation of optical signals with lateral light propagation in liquid crystal devices by means of optical nonlinearities. An optical beam can change the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules at large optical power. Due to this effect, the light undergoes a higher index of refraction and due to the self-focusing effect, the diffraction can be counteracted. Under the right conditions, spatial optical solitons can be generated. In this work, the physical properties of these solitons are investigated, both experimentally and numerically. It is shown for example that the anisotropy of the liquid crystal has a large influence on the propagation direction. Also, the manipulation of these optical solitons is successfully demonstrated in cells with photolithographically etched electrode patterns.