NIT Strategic Workshop Emerging Technologies for Future Optical and Wireless Networks September 8 & 9, 2003 Discrete Optical Solitons Roberto Morandotti Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto Abstract. The study of optical solitary phenomena is important for both physics and engineering. In particular, the ability of solitons to retain their shape and to interact makes them ideal bits for all optical telecommunication systems. Ultra fast Kerr solitons have been demonstrated in the time domain (temporal solitons) and in the space domain (spatial solitons). More recently, a special class of spatial solitons (propagating in a periodical optical potential) has shown even more fascinating characteristics. Discrete solitons (DS) were first proposed in the late 80s by Christodoulides et Al., and demonstrated by us in 1998. We found that DSs present novel dynamical behaviours, two signs of diffraction, and are subjected to a photonics band gap- like structure. Biography. Roberto Morandotti received a MSc in physics from the University of Genova in 1993. From February 1996 to December1998, he worked towards his PhD degree under the supervision of Stewart Aitchison at the University of Glasgow (Scotland), where his research activity focused on the study of the linear and nonlinear properties of optical discrete systems. After spending one year in Glasgow as a Research Assistant, he moved to Israel where he became a Visiting Scientist at Yaron Silberberg’s Ultrafast Optics Group (January 2000 - February 2002), and finally to the University of Toronto (Canada), to work on the characterization of novel optical structures (March 2002 - May 2003). Since June 2003, he is an Associate Professor in the “Ultrafast Optical Processing” group, recently established at INRS-EMT (University of Quebec) in Montreal. His research interests deal mainly with the linear and nonlinear properties of periodic structures, both in III-V semiconductors and silica. Prof. Morandotti is author and coauthor of more than 50 papers in scientific journals and conferences. In particular, the research on “Discrete Optical Solitons” has led to 9 publications in Physical Review Letters, to 11 invited papers and to 4 post deadline papers at major OSA (Optical Society of America) and LEOS (Laser and Electro Optics Society) conferences, and to more than 300 citations in the last five years.