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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Symmetry-breaking bifurcations and polarization instability in degenerate four-wave mixing

Giovanni Gregori, Stefan W. Wabnitz

Published Jan 1, 1986• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

An intense pump wave propagating in an anisotropic birefringent Kerrlike medium can be switched between orthogonal polarizations through coherent superposition with a weak control signal which slightly perturbs the input polarization state.1,2

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Quantitative study of birefringence effects in fiber-based orthogonal-pump FWM systems

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Optical fibers have unwanted residual birefringence due to imperfections in fabrication processes and environmental conditions. This birefringence will randomize the state of polarization of propagating signals and may harm the performance of four-wave mixing based processing devices. Here, we present a quantitative study of the effects of birefringence in orthogonal-pump four-wave mixing systems, and identify different regions of operation of the optical fiber, mainly determined by the relative magnitude between the physical length L and beat length L b . This finding clarifies the characteristics of the complex interplay between birefringence and four-wave mixing and advises appropriate fiber length selection for minimized polarization dependent gain.

Optics Express•Jan 25, 2023•6 citations
The steady-state polarizations of fields counterpropagating in nonlinear Kerr media can exhibit complicated behavior.1 We examine the temporal behavior for the case of an isotropic nonlinear Kerr medium and show that the polarizations are temporally unstable above a certain threshold intensity, even when the input polarizations are linear and parallel to each other. This polarization configuration is known to be spatially stable and is often chosen for the two strong pump waves in phase conjugation by degenerate four-wave mixing. We find that the threshold intensity for the polarization instability is approximately the intensity at which the phase conjugate reflectivity is equal to unity. Depending on the ratio of the two input intensities, this instability just above threshold can manifest itself as an abrupt rotation of the output polarizations to a new steady-state value or as a periodic oscillation of the output polarizations. At higher intensities the polarization can evolve chaotically in time, and depending on the ratio of the transit time through the medium to the response time of the medium the output intensity can fluctuate chaotically as well.
Abstract We have studied the rotation of an elliptically polarized light propagating through thermal rubidium vapor with efficient four-wave mixing (FWM) and cross-phase modulation (XPM). These nonlinear processes are enhanced by Zeeman coherence within the degenerate sub-levels of the two-level atomic system. The elliptically polarized light with small ellipticity is considered as the superposition of a strong-linearly-polarized pump beam and a weak-orthogonal-polarized probe beam. The interference of the probe and the newly generated light field due to degenerate FWM and their gain in the medium due to a large XPM induced by the pump beam leads to the rotation of the elliptical polarized light. A theoretical analysis of the probe propagation through the nonlinear medium was used to explain the experimental observation and the fitting of the experimental data gives the estimates of the third-order non-linear susceptibilities associated with FWM and XPM. Our study can provide useful parameters for the generation of efficient squeezed vacuum states and squeezed polarization states of light. Furthermore our study finds application in controlling the diffraction of a linearly-polarized light beam traversing the medium.
Optical fibers have unwanted residual birefringence due to imperfections in fabrication processes and environmental conditions. This birefringence will randomize the state of polarization of propagating signals and may harm the performance of four-wave mixing based processing devices. Here, we present a quantitative study of the effects of birefringence in orthogonal-pump four-wave mixing systems, and identify different regions of operation of the optical fiber, mainly determined by the relative magnitude between the physical length L and beat length L b . This finding clarifies the characteristics of the complex interplay between birefringence and four-wave mixing and advises appropriate fiber length selection for minimized polarization dependent gain.