Professor Carlsten and his group study soliton formation in stimulated Raman scattering. Solitons are pulses that propagate through a medium without changing shape, even when they undergo collisions. They were first observed in barge canals in the 19th century as water waves that mysteriously refused to dissipate. Carlsten's group investigates solitons in electromagnetic waves where they are of great importance to wave propagation in optical fibers.
