Recent Progresses on Experimental Investigations of Topological and Dissipative Solitons in Liquid Crystals

Yuan Shen,Ingo Dierking

doi:10.3390/cryst12010094

Abstract

Solitons in liquid crystals have received increasing attention due to their importance in fundamental physical science and potential applications in various fields. The study of solitons in liquid crystals has been carried out for over five decades with various kinds of solitons being reported. Recently, a number of new types of solitons have been observed, among which, many of them exhibit intriguing dynamic behaviors. In this paper, we briefly review the recent progresses on experimental investigations of solitons in liquid crystals.

Highlights

Solitons are self-sustained localized packets of waves in nonlinear media that propagate without changing shape
Topological Solitons in Chiral Nematics Topological solitons are continuous but topologically nontrivial field configurations embedded in uniform physical fields that behave like particles and cannot be transformed
Topological solitons are continuous but topologically nontrivial field configurations embedded in uniform physical fields that behave like particles and cannot be transformed into a uniform state through smooth deformations [42]

Summary

Introduction

Solitons are self-sustained localized packets of waves in nonlinear media that propagate without changing shape. Halolswinevtehre, bexepcaeurisme ethnet.observation was from the top of thIenstahme spalme,eoyneearc,oaudldiffneroetnrtetaylplye soefewtahlel wparospinavgeasttiiognatperdotcheesosroetficthalelytwbyisBt rwocahllasrdin[1th8]e aenxdpeerxipmeernimt.entally by Leger [19,20] These walls separate domains in which LC molecules rotateIninthtewsoamdieffyereeanr,t addirieffcetiroennst,tyi.pe.e, othf ewsaoll-cwalalsedinrveevsetirgsaetteidlt tdhoemoraeitnicsal[l2y1]b.yTBhreoychcaarnd b[1e8g]eannedraetxepdebriymiennctraelalysinbyg Ltheegearp[p1l9ie,2d0]m. In 1988, Joets and Ribotta reported a time-dependent localized state of electro-convection in a nematic [30] These spatially localized domains exhibit elliptical shape and distribute randomly throughout the sample. The domains themselves do not show uniform translational motion, instead they fluctuate around an average location Both the velocity of the rolls and the shape o5f otfh1e7 domains can be varied by tuning the applied electric field. CCoommppaarreedd ttoo mmoosstt mmaatteerriiaallss,, tthhee nnoonnlliinneeaarr ccooeefffificciieenntt ooff nneemmaattiicc LLCC iiss eexxttrreemmeellyyllaarrggee((110066 ttoo 11001100ttiimmeess ggrreeaatteerr tthhaann tthhaatt ooff ttyyppiiccaall iinnvveessttiiggaattiinngg ssppaattiiaall ooppttiiccaall ososopopltltiiiittccooaannllssmm[[33aa22tte]e].r.riAiAaasllsssssshshuuoocwcwhhnnaaissinnCCFFSSiig22g)u),u,rmrmeea5a5k,k,iaainnlgliginnieitetaaaarrnlnlyyiidpdpeoeoalalalalrrsisiyzyzesestdtdeembmbeeafafomomrr pprrooppaaggaatteessaalolonnggththeez-za-xaixsisanadndenetnertesras naenmeamtiactcicelcl.eTllh. Topological Solitons in Chiral Nematics Topological solitons are continuous but topologically nontrivial field configurations embedded in uniform physical fields that behave like particles and cannot be transformed

Topological Solitons in Chiral Nematics

Dynamic Dissipative Solitons in Liquid Crystals

Conclusions