The objective of this project is to develop a new technology for ultra high speed (terabit per second) information processing, communication, and computing. The technology is based on optical spatio-temporal solitons, which are localized packets of electromagnetic energy. Logic devices and computing architectures based on the interactions of spatio-temporal solitons in two and three dimensions will be investigated theoretically and experimentally. These devices and systems will employ materials with high order optical nonlinearities as well as artificially structured media designed to support soliton propagation and interactions. This research is expected to provide a foundation for a robust, practical, compact, cascadable, and logically complete switching technology with processing speed and density orders of magnitude beyond those of existing information-processing electronics.
