Weak-photon-localization effects in nonlinear optical phenomena

Kevin J. Resch, Jeff S. Lundeen, Aephraim M. Steinberg

We demonstrate suppression and enhancement of spontaneous parametric down-conversion via quantum interference with two weak fields from a local oscillator (LO). Effectively, pairs of LO photons up-convert with high efficiency for appropriate phase settings, exhibiting an effective nonlinearity enhanced by at least 10 orders of magnitude. This constitutes a two-photon switch and promises to be applicable to a wide variety of quantum nonlinear optical phenomena.

Charles M. Bowden, Aaron S. Manka, Jonathan P. Dowling +1 more

Gilad Almogy, Avigail Yariv

Summary form only given. Several characteristic features have attracted the current interest in nonlinear optical phenomena of quantum well-intersubband transitions (QWISBTs): the ability to design the quantum well structure and hence control the transition energies and optical dipole matrix elements; the almost equal effective masses of the subbands leading to virtually discrete optical transitions; and the weak localization of electrons in the conduction band leading to large optical dipole matrix elements and hence strong optical interactions.

Yaron R. Silberberg, Valéria Loureiro da Silva, J.P. Heritage +3 more

Optical fibers have proven to be one of the most important nonlinear media, even though in most cases the nonlinearity exploited is the notoriously weak Kerr effect of the silica-based fiber. By using doped fibers, new, stronger nonlinearities are possible. These stronger effects could allow for new phenomena and applications. Coherent effects, in particular, should be important when pulses shorter or comparable to the dephasing time of the impurity ions propagate in the fiber. Here we report, for the first time, the observation of accumulated photon-echo and free induction decay during the propagation of femtosecond pulses in Er doped fibers at 4.2°K.

Shayan Mookherjea