Spatial solitons extend depth of focus
Researchers at the Italian National Institute of Materials Physics and the University of Insubrio (both in Como, Italy) have shown how the second-order nonlinearity in some crystals can be exploited to extend the beam waist of a focused image based on formation of spatial solitons.
Researchers at the Italian National Institute of Materials Physics and the University of Insubrio (both in Como, Italy) have shown how the second-order nonlinearity in some crystals can be exploited to extend the beam waist of a focused image based on formation of spatial solitons.1 So far, depth of focus has been increased 3.6 times, and experiments have begun to reveal some of the differences between single- and multiple-soliton propagation. This kind of technique could eventually be exploited in devices for all-optical processing. Such devices are particularly needed in the field of communications, in which engineers are trying to find their way around the bottleneck of photonic-electronic interfaces.
