TY - JOUR
T1 - A paraxial model for optical self-focussing in a nematic liquid crystal
AU - McLaughlin, David W.
AU - Muraki, David J.
AU - Shelley, Michael J.
AU - Xiao Wang, Wang
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Erez Braun, Luc Faucheux and Albert Libchaber for many enjoyable hours of scientific discussion regarding the optical experiments. The authors would like to also thank a referee for carefully reading the manuscript, and for making several useful comments. Both DJM and DWM were supported in part through AFOSR-90-0161 and NSF DMS-8922717 A01. DJM and MJS acknowledge partial support from DOE grant DE-FG02-88ER25053. MJS acknowledges the National Science Foundation through Presidential Young Investigator grant DMS-9396403. MJS also thanks Daniel Marcus for useful conversations. XPW is supported through the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong by grant D4053 DAG 93/94 scl4. The majority of the computations were performed using facilities at Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Application under grant DMS-94000N.
PY - 1995/11/1
Y1 - 1995/11/1
N2 - Numerical and asymptotic results are presented for a coupled PDE system that models recent experiments of the self-focussing of laser light in a nematic liquid crystal. This study complements previous asymptotic analyses which, in a narrow-beam limit, describe two essential features observed in nematic self-focussing - the undulation and filamentation of a laser beam. These numerical computations represent a direct emulation of the experimental configuration within the context of a paraxial PDE model. In addition to providing numerical corroboration to these earlier asymptotic analyses, these results suggest that initial focussing caustics play a critical rôle in the formation of beam filament pairs.
AB - Numerical and asymptotic results are presented for a coupled PDE system that models recent experiments of the self-focussing of laser light in a nematic liquid crystal. This study complements previous asymptotic analyses which, in a narrow-beam limit, describe two essential features observed in nematic self-focussing - the undulation and filamentation of a laser beam. These numerical computations represent a direct emulation of the experimental configuration within the context of a paraxial PDE model. In addition to providing numerical corroboration to these earlier asymptotic analyses, these results suggest that initial focussing caustics play a critical rôle in the formation of beam filament pairs.
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U2 - 10.1016/0167-2789(95)00187-9
DO - 10.1016/0167-2789(95)00187-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0011944190
SN - 0167-2789
VL - 88
SP - 55
EP - 81
JO - Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena
JF - Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena
IS - 1
ER -