Realization of particular liquid crystal cells for propagation and characterization of optical spatial soliton

We report on the design, fabrication process and characterization of liquid crystal cells for investigation of optical spatial solitons. Controlling of the director orientation at the input interface, as well as in the bulk, allows to obtain configurations that can produce distinct optical phenomena in a light beam propagating in the cell. For a particular director configuration, it is possible to produce two waves inside the nematic liquid crystal cell: the extraordinary and the ordinary one. With a different director configuration, the extraordinary wave only is obtained, which propagates inside the cell at an angle of more than 7 degrees with respect to the impinging wave vector direction. Under this peculiar configuration and by applying an external voltage, it is possible to have a good control of the propagation direction of the optical spatial soliton. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America