Managed Optical Spatiotemporal Solitons

这是一个对超短光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，由于衍射和物质色散，光脉冲在传播过程中会在空间和时间上扩散。然而，在某些条件下，可以制造出不扩散或不分散的光脉冲，这样的脉冲被称为孤子。该项目的中心主题是研究脉冲在层状周期性结构中的传播，这可能通过“管理”通常导致局部波场分散的效应来支持孤子的形成。一个具体的目标是观察时空孤子，它被称为“光子弹”，以识别它们的粒子状特征。这样的孤子从未在实验中被观察到。这项工作将与来自特拉维夫和巴塞罗那的团体合作进行。该项目涉及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。在光脉冲的非线性传播和玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体的演化之间有大量的相似之处。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-物质相互作用的研究非常感兴趣，而对时空脉冲传播的深入了解将有助于这一研究。孤子形成可以用来产生激光无法直接获得的脉冲/光束，这推动了应用兴趣甚至商业兴趣。最后，光弹可能在未来的全光计算或信息处理系统中作为信息位有用。电磁能局域包的简单概念，以及光实验的视觉性质，将允许为该项目构建的实验用于对非线性光学本科高级课程的学生进行高影响力的基本现象演示。

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.