Overview of current developments in nonlinear photorefractive optics. The book dicusses exciting discoveries, with special emphasis on transverse effects such as spatial soliton formation and interaction, spontaneous pattern formation and pattern competition in active feedback systems. Different aspects of potential applications, such as wave guiding in adaptive photorefractive solitons and techniques for pattern control for information processing, are also described.

This is the first volume of a set of three within the Springer Series in Optical Sciences, and is devoted to photorefractive effects, photorefractive materials, and their applications. Since the publication of our first two Springer books on Photorefractive Materials and Their Applications (Topics in Applied Physics, Vols. 61 and 62) almost 20 years ago, a lot of research has been done in this area. New and often expected effects have been discovered, theoretical models developed, known effects finally explained, and novel applications proposed. We believe that the field has now reached a high level of maturity, even if research continues in all areas mentioned above and with new discoveries arriving quite regularly. We therefore have decided to invite some of the top experts in the field to put together the state of the art in their respective fields. This after we had been encouraged to do so for more than ten years by the publisher, due to the fact that the former volumes were long out of print.

The growth of regularity from disorder, the evolution from the simple towards the complex, and the spontaneous formation of spatio temporal patterns in general are questions which intrigue everybody. This has been one of the hasic philosophical topics from ancient to modern times. Is nature able to create something fundamentally new by itself? If yes, how does this creation occurs? Or does nature only reproduce something which was already encoded in it, from the very beginning? This remained a topic exclusively for philoso phers until very recently, and it was only a few decades a. go that physicists started to convert this seemingly purely philosophical subject into a scientific discipline: a scientific discipline like other scientific disciplines, where one re lies on formulas and equations, on nunlerical simulations, and on laboratory experiments. This book is not about general questions related to pattern formation and self organization in nature. It is about spontaneous patterns in just one part of nature in nonlinear optical systems, and, more precisely, in nonlinear optical resonators. Nonlinear optical systems represent a small part of nature, hut a very representative part: one can observe here nearly all the known symmetries of patterns, one can generate nearly all known types of localized strlictlires and one can realize nearly all known spatial instabilities and spatial bifurcations.

"This text covers the fundamental aspects and the recent advances of photorefractive optics. There is a market potential for developing photorefractive (PR) optic devices for the needs of informational infrastructures. Photorefractive Optics provides an intensive background and details state-of-the-art technological applications for these needs. The book is a reference text for technical staff, research scientists, and graduate students who are working in the field."--BOOK JACKET

This new edition features numerous updates and additions. Especially 4 new chapters on Fiber Optics, Integrated Optics, Frequency Combs and Interferometry reflect the changes since the first edition. In addition, major complete updates for the chapters: Optical Materials and Their Properties, Optical Detectors, Nanooptics, and Optics far Beyond the Diffraction Limit. Features Contains over 1000 two-color illustrations. Includes over 120 comprehensive tables with properties of optical materials and light sources. Emphasizes physical concepts over extensive mathematical derivations. Chapters with summaries, detailed index Delivers a wealth of up-to-date references.

Caustics are natural phenomena, forming light patterns in rainbows or through drinking glasses, and creating light networks at the bottom of swimming pools. Only in recent years have scientists started to artificially create simple caustics with laser light. However, these realizations have already contributed to progress in advanced imaging, lithography, and micro-manipulation. In this book, Alessandro Zannotti pioneers caustics in many ways, establishing the field of artificial caustic optics. He employs caustic design to customize high-intensity laser light. This is of great relevance for laser-based machining, sensing, microscopy, and secure communication. The author also solves a long standing problem concerning the origin of rogue waves which appear naturally in the sea and can have disastrous consequences. By means of a far-reaching optical analogy, he identifies scattering of caustics in random media as the origin of rogue waves, and shows how nonlinear light-matter interaction increases their probability.

This book, which presents the peer-reviewed post-proceedings of CSNDD 2012 and CSNDD 2014, addresses the important role that relevant concepts and tools from nonlinear and complex dynamics could play in present and future engineering applications. It includes 22 chapters contributed by outstanding researchers and covering various aspects of applications, including: structural health monitoring, diagnosis and damage detection, experimental methodologies, active vibration control and smart structures, passive control of structures using nonlinear energy sinks, vibro-impact dynamic MEMS/NEMS/AFM, energy-harvesting materials and structures, and time-delayed feedback control, as well as aspects of deterministic versus stochastic dynamics and control of nonlinear phenomena in physics. Researchers and engineers interested in the challenges posed and opportunities offered by nonlinearities in the development of passive and active control strategies, energy harvesting, novel design criteria, modeling and characterization will find the book to be an outstanding introduction.

Selected modern aspects of artificially layered structures and bulk materials involving antiferromagnetic long-range order are the main themes of this book. Special emphasis is laid on the prototypical behavior of Ising-type model systems. They play a crucial role in the field of statistical physics and, in addition, contribute to the basic understanding of the exchange bias phenomenon in MBE-grown magnetic heterosystems. Throughout the book, particular attention is given to the interplay between experimental results and their theoretical description, ranging from the famous Lee-Yang theory of phase transitions to novel mechanisms of exchange bias.

This up-to-date review also serves as an introduction to Heavy Quark Effective Theory (HQET) - a new approach to heavy quark physics problems in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The book also contains a detailed discussion of the methods of calculation used in HQET, along with numerous illustrations.

This book reviews recent contributions of electron positron colliders to the precision test of the electroweak Standard Model. It includes a short summary of the measurements at the Z resonance and gives an overview of the electroweak processes above the Z. Subsequently, measurements of the W mass at LEP are discussed in detail. Late chapters offer an outlook on electroweak physics at the future LHC. Also features many illustrations and tables.