Nematic liquid crystals: An excellent playground for nonlocal nonlinear light localization in soft matter

Abstract

The study of optical spatial solitons in nematic liquid crystals (NLC) has greatly improved the understanding of light localization in reorientational nonlocal media. We report some of the latest progress with reference to bright and dark solitary waves in NLC, bright and dark nematicons, discussing models and methods for their description and simulation. We give an account of exact and approximate solutions, as well as nematicon bistability.