Journal of Nonlinear Optical Physics & Materials
FOUR-WAVE MIXING IN LEFT-HANDED MATERIALS
Shiming Gao, Sailing He
Abstract
The four-wave mixing (FWM) effect in a so-called left-handed material (LHM) with a third-order nonlinear response is studied. The theoretical models for the wavelength conversion (WC) and parametric amplification (PA) based on the FWM in the LHM are established when the signal falls in the frequency range of backward or forward wave. Analytical formulas for the WC efficiency and PA gain are derived. The influences of the pump powers, the phase mismatch, and the interaction length on the performances of the WC and PA are analyzed. The phase-match dependence of the performance is reduced by carefully controlling the pump powers.