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Issue No. 3 | 01.10.2004
Solitons: Self-Trapped Optical Beams
Mordechai Segev
This article describes the recent evolution of optical spatial solitons into the leading front of soliton science and of nonlinear optics.
Abstract
It is almost common knowledge now that particles also possess properties of waves. But, can localized wave-packets behave and interact like particles? This article is dedicated to self-trapped optical beams called "spatial Solitons", how they form and how they interact with each other in 3D. The solitons can attract or repel or spiral about each other while conserving energy and momentum. Under the proper conditions, colliding solitons can even undergo fusion or fission. As was recently discovered, solitons can also form from incoherent sources of white light (e.g., the sun or a simple light bulb), giving rise to random-phase solitons. This article describes the recent evolution of optical spatial solitons into the leading front of soliton science and of nonlinear optics.
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About the Author
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About the Author: Mordechai (Moti) Segev is a Professor of Physics at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, and a visiting professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University. He received his D.Sc. from the Technion1990. Moti Segev spent one year at Caltech University as a post-doctoral fellow and two more years as a senior research fellow. He joined Princeton in 1994 as an assistant professor, becoming an associate professor in 1997 and a full professor in 1999, while he was already in the process of returning home, to Israel. Moti Segev's research interests are mainly in nonlinear optics, solitons, and quantum electronics, although he finds some entertainment in thermodynamics, and nonlinear dynamics. He has roughly 190 publications in refereed journals, seven book chapters, and he has given more than 50 invited talks at international conferences. Among his most significant contributions are the discoveries of photorefractive spatial solitons, of self-trapping of white incoherent light beams, and the first observation of 2D solitons in periodic structures. Moti Segev has won several awards, among them the Sloan Research Award in Physics (USA, 1995), and the Technion's Taub Research Award. But above all, he takes pride in the success of the graduate students and post-doctoral fellows he has worked with over the years.
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