Nonreciprocal nematicon propagation

Abstract

Optical solitary wave beams in nematic liquid crystals -Nematicons- when propagating in orientation-modulated planar cells with a non-symmetric layout evolve along different paths when launched from opposite sides, thereby exhibiting nonreciprocal behavior with non-overlapping trajectories. We model such solitary-waveguides in cells with non-homogeneously oriented molecular director, with anchoring linearly changing along the sample length or across its width. We report on numerical experiments about generation and propagation of nematicons injected from the opposite two ends of the cell and investigate the trajectories of forward and backward propagating self-confined beams. The obtained non-specular transmission suggests a diode-like response as a backward propagating beam does not reach the forward propagating input port.