Spatial solitons in chiral nematics

In this work we present for the first time experimental results of measurements of spatial solitons (nematicons) in chiral nematic liquid crystalline film. We measured the propagation of light beam at the distance of a few millimeters and the nonlinear self-focusing was observed for a light power of order of a few tenths of milliwats. Additional, in a waveguide induced by the nematicon, other low-power light beam (signal beam) with different wavelength was trapped. There were also observed the changes of the nematicon direction by changing the position across the nematics layer. The experimental results are in a good agreement with theoretical predictions.