Solitary wave dynamics in transversely and longitudinally modulated nonlocal media

The propagation of optical beams in a non-local nonlinear medium which is modulated both transversely and longitudinally is investigated. The employed model is a generic discrete nonlinear Schroedinger (DNLS) equation, with a direct modulation of the degree of nonlocality. The focus is on media such as nematic liquid crystals. A variational method is utilized for the systematic investigation of the dependence of soliton dynamics on both its initial characteristics and the configuration parameters. The longitudinal modulation is shown to result in dynamical features of soliton propagation that have no counterpart in longitudinally homogeneous media, suggesting additional soliton propagation control capabilities.