Optical supercavitation in soft matter.
We investigate theoretically, numerically, and experimentally nonlinear optical waves in an absorbing out-of-equilibrium colloidal material at the gelification transition. At a sufficiently high optical intensity, absorption is frustrated and light propagates into the medium. The process is mediated by the formation of a matter-shock wave due to optically induced thermodiffusion and largely resembles the mechanism of hydrodynamical supercavitation, as it is accompanied by a dynamic phase-transition region between the beam and the absorbing material.
Conti
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CNR-ISC Institute for Complex Systems, Department of Physics, University Sapienza, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome, Italy. claudio.conti@roma1.infn.it
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