Optical Engineering
Effect of polarization self-action in cubic crystals: peculiarities and applications
Sergei A. Boiko, Mikhail P. Lisitsa, Georgiy G. Tarasov, Mikhail Y. Valakh
Abstract
New concepts are developed to describe a wide area of nonlinear systems involving the phase relaxation peculiarities for the degenerate two-level system under the resonant optical excitation. Nonlinear susceptibility of the two-level system becomes anisotropic, and self-induced changes of polarization (SICP) are developed to the large (gigantic) magnitudes. The nonlinearities of two different natures are considered: the saturation of absorption and the resonant optical reorientation of anisotropic defects. For these particular cases, the SICP effects manifest themselves at a field much lower than that in traditional nonlinear optics. The larger magnitudes of the effects offer good possibilities for the development of optical devices based on the new physical principles. Various applications of SlOP effects are demonstrated, including the spectroscopic investigations of impure cubic crystals, optical diagnostics, optical storage, information processing, and the development of new optical devices.