Outline of Prof. Carl Weiss's lectures:

Pattern formation and spatial solitons in nonlinear optical resonators.

Pattern formation and spatial solitons in nonlinear optical resonators
The series of lectures will describe experiments on pattern formation and spatial soli-
tons in non-linear optical resonators. The fundamental mathematical model for such
resonators is the nonlinear Schr. oedinger Equation, which constitutes a connection with
uids, super uids, superconductors, particle physics, and chemistry. Pattern formation,
hydrodynamics analogies, phase- and intensity- solitons are shown to occur in passive
and active nonlinear resonators of various types. Properties of the dierent types of (dis-
sipative) spatial solitons are discussed. The recent experiments on spatial solitons in
semiconductor microresonators pave the way to applications of spatial solitons in telecom
and in parallel optical information processing. The study shows also the connections of
nonlinear optics to a wide variety of elds from biology to particle physics.

• From laser mode fields to particles
  TEM01-mode and vortices
  Vortex lattices and their "thermodynamics"
  "Laser hydrodynamics" and connection with Bose-Einstein condensates (super u-
  ids)
  von Karman vortex street in optics/free vortices
  "Chemical" vortices (class-B-laser)

• Bright spatial resonator solitons
  Experiment on passive absorbing resonator
  Creation and control of bright spatial solitons in laser with saturable absorber (in-
  coherent version)
  Stationary and moving bright resonator solitons in laser with saturable absorber
  (coherent version)
  Large numbers of coexisting stationary spatial solitons (coherent version)
  Self-replications of solitons
  Possibility of higher order solitons

• Phase solitons in reactive resonators
  Theoretical prediction of patterns and phase-solitons in DOPO and D4WM
  4 WM experiment
  Dynamics of domain walls
  Phase-solitons
  Prediction of 3D-structures and solitons in DOPO
  3D-vortex tubes in OPO

• Patterns and bright and dark spatial solitons in semiconductor microresonators and
  technical applications
  Hexagonal patterns
  Hexagonal patterns with "missing solitons"
  Spontaneous formation of bright and dark solitons
  Switching bright solitons on and oby addressing
  Thermal eects accompanying spatial solitons "restless" dark solitons Linear arrangements of bright solitons for shift register ap-
  plication in telecom
  Bright and dark solitons in pumped semiconductor resonators

Video recordings of experiments will be shown giving impressions of the dynamics of
patterns, solitons and vortices