Semi-analytical approach to supermode spatial solitons formation in nematic liquid crystals

We study light propagation in nematic liquid crystals in the context of spatial optical solitons formation. We propose a simple analytical model with multiplicative nonlinearity, which represents (qualitatively) the liquid crystal response by comprising the competition between focusing (reorientational) and defocusing (thermal) nonlocal nonlinearities. We show that at sufficiently high input power the interplay between both nonlinearities leads to the formations of two-peak solitons, which represent supermodes of the self-induced extended waveguide structure. We explain the beam splitting mechanism, discuss threshold effects and conclude that similar phenomena might be present in other media with competing nonlocal nonlinearities.