Professor Laszlo Solymar FRS

Laszlo Solymar’s work focuses on volume holography and photorefractive wave interactions. He evolved the definitive theory of the performance of volume holograms. His book on the subject is a classic and is likely to remain so. He and his students have discovered important new phenomena, including the previously unsuspected existence of ‘noise gratings’. Their work has been of critical importance in the successful application of volume holograms. This research led naturally to the extension top photorefractive devices, where Laszlo has produced the most complete theory of four-wave mixing, which for the first time was able to account for key observations. His research has led to the observation and explanation of amplification effects, which are of fundamental interest and of potential utility.