Space-time wave packets can travel in linear media invariantly, even in presence of chromatic dispersion. I review the current status of theoretical and experimental work on this ‘dispersion cancellation’ phenomenon, which is made possible by endowing the optical field with non-differentiable angular dispersion. Consequently, space-time wave packets can travel with no pulse broadening in dispersive media independently of the magnitude, sign, or order of the dispersion. These results may have useful consequences in phase-matching of nonlinear optical effects.
|