From African “tam-tam” to nonlinear optics [Invited]

The field of nonlinear optics has been investigated extensively since its beginning in 1961. This development is in both the theory of nonlinear effects and the theory of nonlinear interactions in nonlinear media, and in the applications of nonlinear devices. The mathematical basis of nonlinear optics is Maxwell’s system of equations governing propagation of electromagnetic waves in a material medium, combined with relations accounting for the nonlinear response of the medium to the electromagnetic field. This review paper presents the contribution of African researchers to recent theoretical advances in the study of nonlinear interactions between electromagnetic waves with different types of nonlinear media, such as optical fibers, metamaterials, and Bose–Einstein condensates, that constitute a fascinating source of temporal, spatial, and spatiotemporal phenomena in the physics of light, and that lead to modulational instability, optical pulse compression, rogue waves, PT-symmetric phenomena, supercontinuum generation, and dissipative solitons.