“…In addition, for low q (q corresponds to the external electric field applied to pre-tilt the molecular director in the (y, z) plane), two stable nematicons of equal amplitudes are supported by the full nematicon equations for two different values of q. The term optical bistability normally refers to the existence of two distinct stable states for a given excitation of the local [70] or nonlocal system [71][72][73], as has been found to occur for solitary waves in saturable Kerr-like media [74][75][76]. Here, the NLC samples exhibit optical bistability in the sense that two nematicons of the same amplitude exist for two different pre-tilts of the molecular director, i.e.…”