One-dimensional transverse modulational instability in nonlocal media with a reorientational nonlinearity

Transverse modulational instability is investigated in undoped nematic liquid crystals, a highly nonlocal material system encompassing a reorientational nonlinear response. Using an elliptic Gaussian excitation, we observe the one-dimensional development of transverse patterns eventually leading to beam breakup, filamentation, and spatial solitons, both in the cases of spatially coherent and partially incoherent excitations.