Prof. Dr. Gaetano ASSANTO

Institute for Nonlinear Optics and OptoElectronics, University Roma Tre​, Rome, Italy

Professor Dr. Gaetano Assanto of the Nonlinear Optics and OptoElectronics Lab of the University Roma Tre will be visiting the faculty of Physics and Astronomy of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena as a guest professor from May until July and August until September 2010. During his stay he will give a variety of lectures concerning the topic of 'Modern Developments in the Field of Optical Solitions'.

Gaetano Assanto received his M.Sc. in Electronic Engingeering at the University of Palermo in 1981. Having finished his PhD in Electr. & Comm. Engg. he joined the Center of Electronic Research in Sicily as a Research Engineer in 1987. From 1988 to 1990 he was Research Associate at the Optical Sciences Center at the University of Arizona, then, from 1990 to 1992, Senior Research Scientist at CREOL. Since November 1992 he is professor of Optoelectronics at the University of Rome "Roma Tre". His current interests are in nonlinear effects (parametric, Kerr-like, reorientational, thermo-optic) for all-optical signal processing and light localization, as well as Ge-on-Si heterostructures and optoelectronics for near-infrared detection. Professor Assanto is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), senior member and Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Photonics Society, member of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), the European Physical Society and of the Executive Committee of the Italian IEEE-LEOS Chapter. In addition, he is member of the editorial board of OSA Optics Letters, IEEE Photonics Journal, Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics and Materials, Hindawi Research Letters in Optics, Laser Physics Review and Photonics Letters of Poland.

Lecture 1 (IEEE Distinguished Lecture):  Nematicons: Spatial optical solitons in nematic liquid crystals

Date: May 10, 2010, 13:30
Place: Seminar room IAP, Albert-Einstein-Str.15, 07743 Jena

  1. Spatial optical solitons in reorientational media: properties
  2. Interactions and steering of nematicons
  3. Refraction and total internal reflection
  4. Nematicons escaping a potential well

Lecture 2: Spatial simultons in purely nonlinear photonic lattices

Date: August 30, 2010, 13:30
Place: Seminar room IAP, Albert-Einstein-Str.15, 07743 Jena

  1. Quadratic cascading and spatial solitons
  2. Second Harmonic Generation via quasi phase matching
  3. Nonlinear photonic lattices
  4. Soliton experiments
  5. Twin beam Second Harmonic Generation in a nonlinear photonic lattice waveguide (symmetric SHG, asymmetric SHG)

Lecture 3: Spatial optical solitons and their interactions in a high index glass

Date: September 8, 2010, 12:30
Place: Seminar room IAP, Albert-Einstein-Str.15, 07743 Jena

  1. Spatial solitons and multiphoton absorption
  2. Individual solitons, collapse and modulational instability
  3. Attraction, repulsion and energy exchange between coherent solitons