Third-order optical nonlinearities and spatial solitary waves in polydiacetylene toluene sulfonate

This dissertation follows the complete development of an all-optical device in para-toluene sulfonate (PTS), also known as poly(2,4-hexadiyne-1,6-diol-bis(p-toluene-sulfonate)). Initially, spectroscopic characterization of the relevant nonlinear optical properties, namely nonlinear refraction,...