By sending circularly polarized light beams onto a homeotropic nematic liquid crystal cell with a photosensitive wall, we are able to locally induce spontaneous matter vortices that remain, each, stable and trapped at the chosen location. We discuss the dual light-matter nature of the created vortices and demonstrate the ability of the system to create optical vortices with opposite topological charges that, consistent with angular momentum conservation, both derive from the same defect created in the liquid crystal texture. Theoretically, we identify a self-stabilizing mechanism for the matter vortex, which is provided by the concurrency of light-induced gradients and anisotropy of the elastic constants that characterize the deformation of the liquid crystal medium. © 2012 American Physical Society.

Vortex Induction via Anisotropy Stabilized Light-Matter Interaction / Barboza, R.; Bortolozzo, U.; Assanto, G.; Vidal-Henriquez, E.; Clerc, M. G.; Residori, S.. - In: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS. - ISSN 0031-9007. - ELETTRONICO. - 109:14(2012), p. 143901. [10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.143901]

Vortex Induction via Anisotropy Stabilized Light-Matter Interaction

Barboza R.
;
2012-01-01

Abstract

By sending circularly polarized light beams onto a homeotropic nematic liquid crystal cell with a photosensitive wall, we are able to locally induce spontaneous matter vortices that remain, each, stable and trapped at the chosen location. We discuss the dual light-matter nature of the created vortices and demonstrate the ability of the system to create optical vortices with opposite topological charges that, consistent with angular momentum conservation, both derive from the same defect created in the liquid crystal texture. Theoretically, we identify a self-stabilizing mechanism for the matter vortex, which is provided by the concurrency of light-induced gradients and anisotropy of the elastic constants that characterize the deformation of the liquid crystal medium. © 2012 American Physical Society.
2012
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11566/279709
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 5
  • Scopus 84
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 79
social impact