Highly nonlocal optical response: Benefit or drawback?

Abstract

A highly nonlocal optical response in space has been shown to heal several shortcomings of beam self-action in nonlinear optics. At the same time, nonlocality is often connected to limits and constraints in both temporal and spatial domains. We provide a brief and rather subjective review of what we consider the main benefits and some drawbacks of a highly nonlocal response in light localization through nonlinear optics, with several examples related to reorientational soft matter, specifically nematic liquid crystals.