Abstract
In this Letter we report observations of optically induced self-organization of colloidal arrays in the presence of unpatterned counterpropagating evanescent waves. The colloidal arrays formed along the laser propagation axis are shown to be linked to the breakup of the incident field into optical spatial solitons, the lateral spacing of the arrays being related to modulation instability of the soft condensed matter system.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 203902 |
Journal | Physical review letters |
Volume | 98 |
Issue number | 20 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 18 2007 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy