Introduction to the special issue of Optical and Quantum Electronics related to the workshops 'PHysics and Applications of SEmiconductor LASERs' (PHASE 2007) and 'Instabilities, Patterns and Spatial SOlitons' (IPSSO 2007)

This special issue of Optical and Quantum Electronics is related to the workshops PHASE 2007 and IPSSO 2007, which took place in Supelec, Metz (France) on March 28–30, 2007. The acronym PHASE stands for “PHysics and Applications of SEmiconductor LASERs”. The acronym IPSSO stands for “Instabilities, Patterns and Spatial SOlitons”. The workshops brought together the photonics community in Europe and the scientific program was built to both acknowledge recent advances and emphasize modern trends in this field. The workshop PHASE 2007 was organized in the framework of the European Action COST 288 “Nanoscale andUltrafast Photonics”. COST is the acronym (in French) for “European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research”. It is a framework for international research and development cooperation, allowing for coordination of national research at European level. The main objective of the COST 288 Action is to advance the application of ultrafast nanophotonics to develop high capacity photonic communication infrastructures, as well as to provide a forum to bring forward advanced research on novel topics such as advanced optical signal processing and optical logic, microwave photonics and exploratory technologies (based on nanophotonics) such as quantum communication. PHASE 2007 was a continuation of the workshop PHASE 2005 which also took place at