(1) Fundamental physical effects in periodic structures; fiber Bragg gratings; 2D and 3D photonic crystals; waveguides, waveguide bends, and waveguide circuits in photonic crystals; frequency conversion and parametric effects in periodic media; nonlinear modes and gap solitons in photonic crystals.

(2) Applications of photonic crystals and photonic-crystal fibers; optical switching; all-optical devices; resonant transmission of the photonic-crystal waveguides and waveguide bends, parametric devices, supercontinuum generation.

(3) Novel nonlinear materials for photonic crystals, relation between nonlinearities and other optical and physical properties of the materials. Fabrication techniques: Microstructured dielectric media, periodically poled materials for quasi-phase matching, fabrication of photonic-crystal waveguides in different structures, Bragg gratings, photonic bandgaps, micromachining, optimization of linear and nonlinear properties.

(Chair) Prof. Yuri Kivshar, RSPhysSE, Australian National University

Prof. Ross McPhedran, University of Sydney

Prof. Min Gu, Swinburne University, Melbourne

Mrs. Nancy Pritchard, Australian Academy of Science

Prof. Erich Weigold, RSPhysSE, Australian National University

Dr. Scott Rashleigh, ADC/AOFR Australia Pty Ltd

Selected invited talks, tutorial lectures, and contributed talks will be prepared for publication as a book. A preliminary expression of interest has been received from Springer-Verlag (NY, USA), for an edited book of Springer Series in Optical Sciences (Series Editor-in-Chief: Prof. W. Rhodes).