Open Access
28 December 2024 Spatiotemporal optical wavepackets: from concepts to applications
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Abstract

Spatiotemporal optical wavepackets refer to light fields with sophisticated structures in both space and time. The ability to produce such spatiotemporally structured optical wavepackets on demand attracted rapidly increasing interest as it may unravel a variety of fundamental physical effects and applications. Traditionally, pulsed laser fields are treated as spatiotemporally separable waveform solutions to Maxwell’s equations. Recently, more generalized spatiotemporally non-separable solutions have gained attention due to their remarkable properties. This review aims to provide essential insights into sculpting light in the space–time domain to create customized spatiotemporal structures and highlights the recent advances in the generation, manipulation, and characterization of increasingly complex spatiotemporal wavepackets. These spatiotemporally non-separable light fields with diverse geometric and topological structures exhibit unique physical properties during propagation, focusing, and light–matter interactions. Various novel results and their broad potential applications as well as an outlook for future trends and challenges in this field are presented.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by CLP and SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

Funding Statement

Xin Liu, Qian Cao, and Qiwen Zhan "Spatiotemporal optical wavepackets: from concepts to applications," Photonics Insights 3(4), R08 (28 December 2024). https://doi.org/10.3788/PI.2024.R08
Received: 27 September 2024; Accepted: 6 December 2024; Published: 28 December 2024
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KEYWORDS
Ultrafast phenomena

Spiral phase plates

Modulation

Dispersion

Pulse signals

Spatial light modulators

Wave propagation

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