A pioneer in the field presents the first book on nematicons, spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals

Little more than a decade after they were first demonstrated, nematicons have become an important area of research worldwide. This wide-ranging introduction is the first comprehensive collection of scientific work on optical spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals, where they have been observed at powers of the order of milliwatts or lower, and have shown remarkable and peculiar features as compared to solitons in other media.

Nematicons: Spatial Optical Solitons in Nematic Liquid Crystals features information on the background physics and relevant mathematics as well as numerical modeling, experimental approaches and results, and applications. It combines a review of the field with a considerable amount of original material as well as background information on liquid crystals.

This one-of-a-kind resource:

• Explores nematicons' nonlocal features, including their modeling, and experimental results on their mutual interactions
• Deals with models and numerics on light localization and spatial solitons, with emphasis on nematicons and their guiding properties
• Discusses experimental as well as theoretical work on nematicons and their trajectories, which can be modified in various ways and in several configurations
• Illustrates the physics and properties of nonlinear reorientation and thermo-optically localized waves
• Underlines the role of electronic nonlinearities and their synergy with reorientation in nematic liquid crystals, pinpointing the possibility of spatio-temporal solitons in these materials

Complete with a vast bibliography of all the existing work in spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals as well as actual photographs from experiments, Nematicons is a valuable tool for scientists, students, and scholars working on light localization and solitons, as well as on nonlinear optics in liquid crystals.