Three-dimensional solitary waves with electrically tunable direction of propagation in nematics

被引：35

作者：

Li, Bing-Xiang ^{[1
,2
]}

Xiao, Rui-Lin ^{[1
,2
]}

Paladugu, Sathyanarayana ^{[1
]}

Shiyanovskii, Sergij, V ^{[1
,2
]}

Lavrentovich, Oleg D. ^{[1
,2
,3
]}

机构：

[1] Kent State Univ, Adv Mat & Liquid Crystal Inst, Kent, OH 44242 USA

[2] Kent State Univ, Chem Phys Interdisciplinary Program, Kent, OH 44242 USA

[3] Kent State Univ, Dept Phys, Kent, OH 44242 USA

来源：

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 2019年 / 10卷

关键词：

REORIENTATIONAL SOLITONS; OPTICS;

D O I：

10.1038/s41467-019-11768-8

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Production of stable multidimensional solitary waves is a grand challenge in modern science. Steering their propagation is an even harder problem. Here we demonstrate three-dimensional solitary waves in a nematic, trajectories of which can be steered by the electric field in a plane perpendicular to the field. The steering does not modify the properties of the background that remains uniform. These localized waves, called director bullets, are topologically unprotected multidimensional solitons of (3 + 2)D type that show fore-aft and right-left asymmetry with respect to the background molecular director; the symmetry is controlled by the field. Besides adding a whole dimension to the propagation direction and enabling controlled steering, the solitons can lead to applications such as targeted delivery of information and micro-cargo.

引用

页数：9