The combination of optical nonlinearity and optical cavities creates a potent mixture from which a wide range of physical behaviors and, potentially, applications may emerge. When optical cavities are as diverse as micro-resonators and fiber lasers, the opportunities for exploration and exploitation are enormous.
This edited volume brings together leading experts and delivers a detailed and broad perspective of the state of the art. The collection aims to bridge “the gap between research topics with a view to ... stimulating creative optical design.” It is hoped that such creativity will be engendered among readers of this book—who will encounter a variety of optical cavities where solitons, localized states, optical frequency combs and mode-locking, among many phenomena, occur.
Polarization properties of vectorial solid-state lasers and fiber laser cavities may, in particular, be the basis of novel applications. Topics such as exploding solitons lend themselves to quite dramatic illustrations, which are produced to a very high standard—as are the text and mathematics throughout this volume. It is with some anticipation that one waits to see how the dynamical phenomena described here find their expression in future applications.
Review by K. Alan Shore, Bangor University, School of Electronic Engineering, Wales, U.K.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or OSA.