Diferentes tipos de sólitons têm sido observados em meios ópticos não-lineares, e seus comportamentos individuais descritos pela equação não-linear de Schrödinger e pela equação não-linear de Schrödinger generalizada, em diferentes dimensões e geometrias. Entretando, há situações onde muitos sólitons são gerados formando uma densa rede de sólitons. Nestes casos, é impossível desprezar as interações entre os sólitons e temos que considerar a evolução da estrutura como um todo. A teoria das ondas de choque dispersivas em meios fotorrefrativos e a teoria da difração não-linear de intensos feixes de luz propagando-se em meios fotorrefrativos com um fio refletor incorporado a esse meio foi desenvolvida, e verificamos que está em excelente acordo com nossas simulações numéricas. No caso da formação de sólitons em condensados, fizemos cálculos numéricos realísticos dentro da aproximação de campo médio usando a equação de Gross-Pitaevskii, incluindo também um potencial de confinamento, um potencial móvel e um potencial dipolar. A maioria dos resultados puderam ser comparados com experimentos recentes. / Different kinds of solitons have already been observed in various nonlinear optical media, and their behavior has been explained in the frameworks of such mathematical models as the nonlinear Schrödinger and generalized nonlinear Shrödinger equations for different dimensions and geometries. However, there are situations when many solitons are generated so that they can comprise a dense soliton train. In such situations, it is impossible to neglect interactions between solitons and one has to consider the evolution of the structure as a whole rather than to trace the evolution of each soliton separately. The theory of optical shock waves in photorefractive media and the theory of nonlinear diffraction of light beams propagating in photorefractive media with embedded reflecting wire was developed and agrees very well with our numerical simulations. In the condensate soliton formation case, we did numerical calculations in the mean field approach using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, adding a trap potential and a moving potential and a potential of the dipole-dipole interaction. The main results were also checked by recent experiments.

Diferentes tipos de sólitons têm sido observados em meios ópticos não-lineares, e seus comportamentos individuais descritos pela equação não-linear de Schrödinger e pela equação não-linear de Schrödinger generalizada, em diferentes dimensões e geometrias. Entretando, há situações onde muitos sólitons são gerados formando uma densa rede de sólitons. Nestes casos, é impossível desprezar as interações entre os sólitons e temos que considerar a evolução da estrutura como um todo. A teoria das ondas de choque dispersivas em meios fotorrefrativos e a teoria da difração não-linear de intensos feixes de luz propagando-se em meios fotorrefrativos com um fio refletor incorporado a esse meio foi desenvolvida, e verificamos que está em excelente acordo com nossas simulações numéricas. No caso da formação de sólitons em condensados, fizemos cálculos numéricos realísticos dentro da aproximação de campo médio usando a equação de Gross-Pitaevskii, incluindo também um potencial de confinamento, um potencial móvel e um potencial dipolar. A maioria dos resultados puderam ser comparados com experimentos recentes. / Different kinds of solitons have already been observed in various nonlinear optical media, and their behavior has been explained in the frameworks of such mathematical models as the nonlinear Schrödinger and generalized nonlinear Shrödinger equations for different dimensions and geometries. However, there are situations when many solitons are generated so that they can comprise a dense soliton train. In such situations, it is impossible to neglect interactions between solitons and one has to consider the evolution of the structure as a whole rather than to trace the evolution of each soliton separately. The theory of optical shock waves in photorefractive media and the theory of nonlinear diffraction of light beams propagating in photorefractive media with embedded reflecting wire was developed and agrees very well with our numerical simulations. In the condensate soliton formation case, we did numerical calculations in the mean field approach using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, adding a trap potential and a moving potential and a potential of the dipole-dipole interaction. The main results were also checked by recent experiments.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is essential for further enhancement of the transmission capacities of optical telecommunication systems. Key devices in WDM networks are multiplexing/demultiplexing components, which enable the combination/separation of several carrier waves with different wavelengths for the purpose of simultaneous transmission through one optical fibre. These components can be realized using Bragg diffraction from volume holographic gratings. Especially reflection holograms provide a pronounced wavelength selectivity which makes them attractive for free-space WDM applications. Holograms can be stored permanently in photorefractive lithium niobate crystals by the method of Thermal Fixing. Heating of the crystal during or after the recording process and subsequent development by homogeneous illumination at room temperature create nonvolatile holograms. The recording and development processes of Thermal Fixing in iron- and copper-doped lithium niobate crystals were investigated. Macroscopic Gaussian-shaped intensity patterns were used to analyse the origin of the fixing mechanism. Spatially resolved absorption measurements were performed to determine the concentration profiles of electron traps (Fe II/III) and protons. Results of computer simulations were compared with experimental results, which showed that protons can be found to work as compensators during hologram recording at temperatures around 180 degree C. Nevertheless thermal fixing without protons was possible, another compensation mechanism stood in. The obtained refractive-index changes were due to the electro-optic effect, other contributions could be neglected. With this detailed knowledge about thermal fixing, a two-channel demultiplexing unit was built by superposition of two thermally fixed reflection holograms in an iron-doped lithium niobate crystal. For this purpose a special two-beam interference setup with precisely adjustable writing angles was arranged in a vacuum chamber to eliminate thermally induced phase disturbances of the holographic recording procedure. Continuous development of the holograms by incoherent light was necessary. In the dark, the enhanced dark conductivity of the crystal used gave rise to a hologram degradation within about one day. Large diffraction efficiencies were attained (intensity losses between 2.3 and 5.2 dB only) uilizing crystals with high-quality polished surfaces. The crosstalk supression of the realized demultiplexer was > 25 dB, which is comparable with the performance of other multiplexing techniques like fibre Bragg gratings or arrayed-waveguide gratings. The low polarization dependence of the demultiplexer can be improved by superposition of two holograms for each channel.