The most recent advances on phenomena and effects which involve spatial optical solitons stemming from the reorientational optical response of nematic liquid crystals, the so called Nematicons, are reviewed hereby. After the initial assessment and basic understanding, in the past few years, significant progress on nematicon optics has included cavity-less beam bistability and hysteresis, spontaneous symmetry breaking, power-adjusted refraction, curved waveguides. In photonics, a novel approach for the bottom-up realization of permanent optical waveguides has been introduced, as well as a soliton-aided random laser with enhanced directionality and pointing control.

中文翻译：

---

线虫：从光学到光子学的方向性孤子

特此综述涉及因向列液晶的定向光学响应而产生的空间光学孤子的现象和效应的最新进展。经过初步评估和基本了解，在过去的几年中，向线虫光学技术取得了重大进展，包括无腔光束双稳性和滞后性，自发对称断裂，功率调整折射，弯曲波导。在光子学中，已经引入了一种用于自底向上实现永久性光波导的新颖方法，以及一种具有增强的方向性和指向控制能力的孤子辅助随机激光器。