Prof. Dr. Alexander DREISCHUH

Professor of Physics at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Sofia, Bulgaria

Alexander Dreischuh, Professor of Physics at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Sofia, Bulgaria, is visiting the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy in October and November 2011. During his stay he will give a series of four lectures, starting on October 21st.

Alexander Dreischuh is a Professor of Physics at the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Sofia, Bulgaria. He received his M.Sc. in Quantum Electronics and Laser Technique in 1987, his Ph.D. in Nonlinear optics and his Dr.rer.nat.habil. in 1991 and 2001, respectively, all of them from the Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, Bulgaria. Alexander Dreischuh became an Associate Professor in 1998, and a Professor in 2004 at the same university. He spent two years at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, as an Alexander-von-Humboldt post-doctoral fellow, and one more year at the same institute as a post-doctoral fellow of the Max Planck Society, Germany. He has close scientific collaborations with the Nonlinear Physics Centre of the Research School of Physics and Engineering at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, and with the Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Department of Nonlinear Optics, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany. Since 2011 he is a Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, Bulgaria. His current interests are in classical Nonlinear optics (third-order nonlinear susceptibilities, self- and induced phase modulation, four-wave frequency mixing, interference between different nonlinear processes, symbiotic laser beams/pulses, all-optical interactions), in Singular nonlinear optics (one- and two-dimensional dark spatial solitons, dark solitary waves), in Holography (computer-generated holograms, encoding of phase singularities), and in Ultrashort laser pulse generation (dispersion control, pulse characterization, adaptive pulse control, scientific applications). He has more than 170 refereed publications in scientific journals, conference proceedings and invited talks.

Professor Alexander Dreischuh will provide a series of lectures on Introduction to singular nonlinear optics. Audience: upper level undergraduate seniors, graduate students majoring in photonics. Pre-requisites: Electromagnetic waves, Optics, basic nonlinear optics.

Lecture 1: Linear vs. Nonlinear Optics. Optical Solitons

Time: October 21, 2011, 15:15
Place: Fraunhofer IOF Jena, Albert-Einstein-Str. 7, 07745 Jena

  • Dispersion, diffraction and third-order nonlinear susceptibilities
  • Physical mechanisms of some third-order nonlinearities
  • Heuristic derivation of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE)
  • Numerical and approximate analytical procedures for solving the NLSE
  • Dark and bright optical solitons (exact analytical results)

Lecture 2: Singular Optical Beams. Dark Optical Solitons - Physics and Applications

Time: October 25, 2011, 12:30-14:00
Place: Lecture hall 3, Hemholtzweg 3, 07743 Jena

  • Singular optical beams (1-D, quasi-2-D, 2-D, ring-shaped and mixed phase dislocations)
  • Methods for generation and quantitative measurement of their phase profiles
  • All-optical waveguiding - physical idea and motivation
  • 1-D dark (spatial) solitons - experiment vs. theory
  • Quasi-2-D dark solitons and all-optical branching schemes
  • Optical vortex solitons - existence, soliton constant, stability
  • Ring dark solitary waves - how to rule their transverse dynamics
  • Dark beams with mixed phase dislocations - general characteristics and potential applications

Lecture 3: Interactions between Optical Solitons

Time: November 1, 2011, 12:30-14:00
Place: Lecture hall 3, Hemholtzweg 3, 07743 Jena

  • Coherent vs. incoherent interaction
  • Dark soliton attraction/repulsion in local/nonlocal media
  • Transverse dynamics of ordered structures of optical vortex  (OV) solitons
  • Vortex lattices in thermal and in photorefractive media
  • OVs in self-focusing and in self-defocusing nonlinear media
  • OVs in second harmonic generation

Lecture 4: Polychromatic Spatial Solitons

Time: November 8, 2011, 12:30-14:00
Place: Lecture hall 3, Hemholtzweg 3, 07743 Jena

  • White light generation basics
  • Discrete diffraction and discrete polychromatic solitons
  • Polychromatic OVSs in photorefractive media
  • White light optical vortices
  • Applications of optical vortices and concluding remarks