Counterpropagating beams in nematic liquid crystals

The behavior of counterpropagating self-trapped optical beam structures in nematic liquid crystals is investigated. A time-dependent model for the beam propagation and the director reorientation in a nematic liquid crystal is numerically treated in three spatial dimensions and time. We find that the stable vector solitons can only exist in a narrow threshold region of control parameters. Bellow this region the beams diffract, above they self-focus into a series of focal spots. Spatiotemporal instabilities are observed as the input intensity, the propagation distance, and the birefringence are increased. We demonstrate undulation, filamentation, and convective dynamical instabilities of counterpropagating beams. Qualitatively similar behavior as of the copropagating beams is observed, except that it happens at lower values of control parameters. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.