Is there a future in nonlinear optics?

[octol]

I don't know much about nonlinear optics, but does doing a PhD in this field give you a chance in landing a job in the industry afterwards? i.e what does the job market look like?

I always kinda thought that nonlinear optics was a very mature field and hence the opportunity to do exciting research is very small, but maybe this is not the case?

 

[J77]

Can you be more specific?

Experimental or theoretical?

 

[octol]

theoretical definitely

 

[J77]

theoretical definitely

So like, nonlinear Schrödinger equation; ginzberg-landau equation, swift-hohenberg...

There's definitely loads more work being down/to do in this field.

Of course, you'd become an expert in PDEs - you can do analytical work here, as well as numerical - for the latter, a big thing at the moment is formation/dynamics of patterns, spiral wave instabilities etc.

These type of things can be taken from nonlinear optics and applied to other fields, eg. medical applications - heart palpatations etc.

The skills you would learn are easily applicable to the research industry.