Airy beam induced optical routing

We present an all-optical routing scheme based simultaneously on optically induced photonic structures and the Airy beam family. The presented work utilizes these accelerating beams for the demonstration of an all-optical router with individually addressable output channels. In addition, we are able to activate multiple channels at the same time providing us with an optically induced splitter with configurable outputs. The experimental results are corroborated by corresponding numerical simulations

Nonlinear lattice structures based on families of complex nondiffracting beams

We present a new concept for the generation of optical lattice waves. For all four families of nondiffracting beams, we are able to realize corresponding nondiffracting intensity patterns in one single setup. The potential of our approach is shown by demonstrating the optical induction of complex photonic discrete, Bessel, Mathieu, and Weber lattices in a nonlinear photorefractive medium. However, our technique itself is very general and can be transferred to optical lattices in other fields like atom optics or cold gases in order to add such complex optical potentials as a new concept to these areas as well

All-optical switching in optically induced nonlinear waveguide couplers

We experimentally demonstrate all-optical vortex switching in nonlinear coupled waveguide arrays optically induced in photorefractive media. Our technique is based on multiplexing of nondiffracting Bessel beams to induce various types of waveguide configurations. Using double- and quadruple-well potentials, we demonstrate precise control over the coupling strength between waveguides, the linear and nonlinear dynamics and symmetry-breaking bifurcations of guided light, and a power-controlled optical vortex switch.This work was supported by the German-Australian DAAD-Go8 travel grant and the Australian Research Council

Spin dynamics in semiconductors

This article reviews the current status of spin dynamics in semiconductors which has achieved a lot of progress in the past years due to the fast growing field of semiconductor spintronics. The primary focus is the theoretical and experimental developments of spin relaxation and dephasing in both spin precession in time domain and spin diffusion and transport in spacial domain. A fully microscopic many-body investigation on spin dynamics based on the kinetic spin Bloch equation approach is reviewed comprehensively.Comment: a review article with 193 pages and 1103 references. To be published in Physics Reports