title: Light-matter interaction induces a single positive vortex with swirling arms.
abstract: Homeotropic nematic liquid crystal cells with a photosensitive wall and negative dielectric anisotropy exhibit, under the influence of local illumination, stable vortexes with swirling arms that are trapped at the illuminated area. Close to the Fréedericksz transition an amplitude equation is derived, which allows us to understand the origin of the induced vortex and the competition between the illuminating profile and the elastic anisotropy generating the swirling of the arms.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 487-3, Santiago, Chile INLN, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, 1361 Route des Lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barboza
authors.affiliation: INLN, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, 1361 Route des Lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bortolozzo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 487-3, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Clerc
authors.affiliation: INLN, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, 1361 Route des Lucioles, 06560 Valbonne, France University of Verona, Department of Computer Science, Strada Le Grazie 15, 37134 Verona, Italy stefania.residori@inln.cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Residori
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCFM, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 487-3, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vidal-Henriquez
keywords: localized structures; optical vortexes; phase singularities