Managed Optical Spatiotemporal Solitons

这是一个对超光速脉冲的非线性传播进行理论和实验研究的项目，重点是脉冲演化的时空方面。 一般来说，由于衍射和材料色散，光脉冲在传播时在空间和时间上展开。 然而，在某些条件下，有可能产生一个不扩散或分散的光脉冲，这样的脉冲被称为孤子。 这个项目的中心主题是分层的，周期性的结构，这可能会支持孤子形成的影响，通常会导致局部波场分散的脉冲传播的调查。一个具体的目标是观察时空孤子，这被称为“光子弹”，以认识到他们的粒子一样的字符。这种孤立子从未在实验中观察到。 这项工作将与来自特拉维夫和巴塞罗那的团体合作进行。 在这个项目中所处理的问题和发展的概念范围从非线性动力系统的基础科学到实用的激光仪器。 光脉冲的非线性传输与玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的演化有着本质的相似之处。 等离子体物理学和流体力学也是如此。人们对极端条件下光与物质相互作用的研究非常感兴趣，对时空脉冲传播的深入理解将促进这一研究。 孤子形成可以用来产生不能直接从激光器获得的脉冲/光束，这推动了应用兴趣甚至商业兴趣。最后，在未来的全光计算或信息处理系统中，光子弹可能作为信息比特有用。一个简单的概念，一个本地化的包的电磁能，沿着与光的实验的视觉性质，将允许实验构建的项目被用于高影响力的演示基本现象的学生在高级本科班的非线性光学。

This is a project to perform theoretical and experimental studies of the nonlinear propagation of ultrahort optical pulses, with a focus on spatiotemporal aspects of the pulse evolution. In general, a pulse of light spreads out in space and time as it propagates, owing to diffraction and material dispersion. However, under some conditions it is possible to make a pulse of light that does not spread or disperse, and such a pulse is called a soliton. The central theme of this project is the investigation of pulse propagation in layered, periodic structures, which may support soliton formation by "managing" the effects that generally cause localized wave fields to disperse. A specific goal is to observe spatiotemporal solitons, which are referred to as "light bullets" in recognition of their particle-like character. Such solitons have never been observed experimentally. The work will be carried out in collaboration with groups from Tel Aviv and Barcelona. The issues addressed and concepts developed in this project range from the fundamental science of nonlinear dynamical systems to practical laser instruments. There are substantial parallels between the nonlinear propagation of optical pulses and the evolution of Bose-Einstein condensates. The same is true of plasma physics and hydrodynamics. There is great interest in the study of light-matter interactions under extreme conditions, and deeper understanding of spatiotemporal pulse propagation will facilitate this. Soliton formation can be used to produce pulses/beams that are not available directly from lasers, and this drives application interest and even commercial interest. Finally, light bullets may be useful as bits of information in future all-optical computing or information-processing systems. The simple concept of a localized packet of electromagnetic energy, along with the visual nature of experiments with light, will allow experiments constructed for the project to be used for high-impact demonstrations of basic phenomena to students in a senior-level undergraduate class on nonlinear optics.