This award supports the PI, William Torruellas, and two postdoctoral students from Washington State University in a collaboration with Falk Lederer of the Institute for Solid State Theory and Theoretical Optics at the University of Jena, Germany, and with Alain Barthelemy of the Institute for Optical and Microwave Communications at the University of Limoges, France. The research focus is on fabrication of micro-cavity polymer thin films that will make possible the experimental demonstration of nonlinear optical patterns and solitary waves. This unique multilateral collaboration brings together the expertise of the U.S. group in polymer-based devices, the pioneering work of the French lab in spatial soliton generation, and the theoretical expertise of the German group. The collaboration includes extensive participation by students from all three universities, and it is expected that the collaboration will expand to include other departments within all three instituions.
