Optical Solitons and Frequency Comb Generation - Abstract

Heinrich, Matthias

Nonlinear discrete optics in femtosecond laser-written photonic lattices

Discrete systems constitute a particularly fruitful playground for nonlinearity to unfold its influence on coherent wave dynamics, as the underlying periodicity may serve as safety net to stave off potentially undesirable runaway effects and instabilities. In the context of optics, femtosecond laser-written waveguide lattices have emerged as versatile platform for the experimental investigation of light propagation in discrete optical systems with Kerr nonlinearity, as well as a host of different physical scenarios ranging from quantum mechanical and solid-state effects to relativistic dynamics, non-Hermitian systems and even supersymmetry. This presentation will provide a brief overview of the technological aspects that enable our research along these lines, and review some of the key results relating to discrete solitons, the all-optical routing of wave packets, and nonlinear spatiotemporal dynamics.