Temporal localized structures in optical resonators

Abstract

We review recent advances on temporal localized structures in optical resonators. Because they can be individually addressed, localized structures may be used as elementary information bits which can be stored in an optical cavity. We disclose the conditions required for their existence and we present a selection of experimental results illustrating their properties in different optical systems. We also show how they can be temporally tweezed by modulating a parameter of the resonator, thus enabling bit reconfiguration and clocking.