Search results for "optical Kerr effect"
showing 10 items of 14 documents
Measurement of high order Kerr refractive index of major air components
2009
International audience; We measure the instantaneous electronic nonlinear refractive index of N2 , O2 , and Ar at room temperature for a 90 fs and 800 nm laser pulse. Measurements are calibrated by post-pulse molecular alignment through a polarization technique. At low intensity, quadratic coefficients n2 are determined. At higher intensities, a strong negative contribution with a higher nonlinearity appears, which leads to an overall negative nonlinear Kerr refractive index in air above 26 TW/cm2 .
General approach to spatiotemporal modulational instability processes
2011
International audience; In this article, we derive the general exact solution of the modulation instability gain. The solution described here is valid for 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D cases considering any temporal response function of the medium and with possible higher order Kerr nonlinearities. In particular, we show that the gain induced by modulation instability is initial condition dependent, while the usual calculations do not lead to such a dependence. Applications for current and high-interest nonlinear propagation problems, such as 1-D optical fiber propagation with delayed Raman response and 2-D filamentation in gases, are investigated in detail. More specifically, we demonstrate that the 2-D …
Spectral dependence of purely-Kerr driven filamentation in air and argon
2010
5 pags, 4 figs.-- PACS number(s): 42.65.Jx, 42.65.Tg, 78.20.Ci. -- Publisher error corrected 27 September 2010, Erratum Phys. Rev. A 82, 039905 (2010): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.033826
Observation d'effets Kerr d'ordres élevés (HOKE) dans les gaz
2011
Talk given by O. Faucher; National audience
Intensity noise-driven nonlinear fiber polarization scrambler
2014
We propose and analyze a novel all-optical fiber polarization scrambler based on the transfer (via the Kerr effect) of the intensity fluctuations of an incoherent pump beam into polarization fluctuations of a frequency-shifted signal beam, copropagating in a randomly birefringent telecom fiber. Optimal signal polarization scrambling results whenever the input signal and pump beams have nearly orthogonal states of polarization. The nonlinear polarization scrambler may operate on either cw or high-bit-rate pulsed signals.
Stratégies de contrôle pour la manipulation spatiale de molécules
2011
Talk given by E. Hertz; National audience
Observation of laser-induced field-free permanent planar alignment of molecules
2011
International audience; Permanent planar alignment of gas-phase linear molecules is achieved by a pair of delayed perpendicularly polarized short laser pulses. The experiment is performed in a supersonic jet, ensuring a relatively high number density of molecules with moderately low rotational temperature. The effect is optically probed on a femtosecond time scale by the use of a third short pulse, enabling a time-resolved birefringence detection performed successively in two perpendicular planes of the laboratory frame. The technique allows for an unambiguous estimation of the molecular planar delocalization produced within the polarization plane of the pulse pair after the turn-off of the…
Higher-order Kerr terms allow ionization-free filamentation in gases
2010
International audience; We show that higher-order nonlinear indices (n4 , n6 , n8 , n10) provide the main defocusing contribution to self-channeling of ultrashort laser pulses in air and Argon at 800 nm, in contrast with the previously accepted mechanism of filamentation where plasma was considered as the dominant defocusing process. Their consideration allows to reproduce experimentally observed intensities and plasma densities in self-guided filaments.
Alignement moléculaire par impulsions laser ultrabrèves : Mesures & Applications
2009
The interaction of an intense ultrashort laser pulse with a molecular sample leads, after the end of the pulse, to molecular alignment at specific time under field-free conditions. This thesis is dedicated to the measurements and applications of this effect. The degree of alignment is determined through the variation of the refractive index induced by the rearrangement of the molecular dipoles. A two-dimensional technique allowing to measure molecular alignment on a single-shot basis is reported in this document. The alignment is then exploited in order to determine physical quantities which are usually difficult to estimate through others methods. The "cross-defocusing technique" has been …
ALIGNEMENT UNI ET TRIDIMENSIONNEL DE MOLÉCULES PAR IMPULSION LASER FEMTOSECONDE
2007
This thesis is devoted to the study of the alignment of linear and asymmetric top molecules generated by an intense laser pulse. In the case of short pulses with respect to molecular rotation, periodic alignment appears in field-free conditions after the extinction of the field. We study theoretically and experimentally the effects of intensity, temperature and polarization of the electric field on produced alignment. If the field is linearly polarized, the interaction leads to the alignment of the most polarizable axis of the molecule. If the field is elliptically polarized, the pulse can generate a simultaneous alignment of the three principal axes of inertia of an asymmetric top molecule…