Optical Sensor for Nonlinear and Quantum Optical Effects

In this chapter, the main foundations for the conception, design, and the project of optical sensors that explore the effects of nonlinear and quantum optics are presented. These sensors have a variety of applications from the design of waveguides with self-selection of propagation modes to signal processing and quantum computing. The chapter seeks to present formal aspects of applied modern optics in a detailed, sequential, and concise manner.

Water Waves and Light: Two Unlikely Partners

We study a generic model governing optical beam propagation in media featuring a nonlocal nonlinear response, namely a two-dimensional defocusing nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) model. Using a framework of multiscale expansions, the NLS model is reduced first to a bidirectional model, namely a Boussinesq or a Benney-Luke-type equation, and then to the unidirectional Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation – both in Cartesian and cylindrical geometry. All the above models arise in the description of shallow water waves, and their solutions are used for the construction of relevant soliton solutions of the nonlocal NLS. Thus, the connection between water wave and nonlinear optics models suggests that patterns of water may indeed exist in light. We show that the NLS model supports intricate patterns that emerge from interactions between soliton stripes, as well as lump and ring solitons, similarly to the situation occurring in shallow water.

Nonlinear Optical Responsive Molecular Switches

Nonlinear optical (NLO) materials have gained much attention during the last two decades owing to their potentiality in the field of optical data storage, optical information processing, optical switching, and telecommunication. NLO responsive macroscopic devices possess extensive applications in our day to day life. Such devices are considered as assemblies of several macroscopic components designed to achieve specific functions. The extension of this concept to the molecular level forms the basis of molecular devices. In this context, the design of NLO switches, that is, molecules characterized by their ability to alternate between two or more chemical forms displaying contrasts in one of their NLO properties, has motivated many experimental and theoretical works. Thus, this chapter focuses on the rational design of molecular NLO switches based on stimuli and materials with extensive examples reported in the literature. The factors affecting the efficiency of optical switches are discussed. The device fabrication of optical switches and their efficiency based on the optical switch, internal architecture, and substrate materials are described. In the end, applications of switches and future prospectus of designing new molecules with references are suitably discussed.