Anisotropy in Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Susceptibility of a Squarylium Dye in a Nematic Liquid Crystal

A squarylium dye is dissolved in 4-cyano-4＇-pentylbiphenyl （SCB） and oriented by sandwiching mixtures between two pieces of rubbed glass plates. The optical absorption spectra of the oriented squarylium dye-5CB layers exhibit high anisotropy. The third-order nonlinear optical responses and susceptibilities X^（3）e of squarylium dye in 5CB are measured with light polarizations parallel and perpendicular to the orientational direction by the resonant femtosecond degenerate four-wave mixing （DFWM） technique. Temporal profiles of the DFWM signal of the oriented squarylium dye-5CB layers with light polarizations parallel and perpendicular to the orientational direction are measured with a time resolution of 0.3ps （FWHM）, and are found to consist of two components, i.e., the coherent instantaneous nonlinear response and slow response due to the formation of excited molecules. A high anisotropic ratio of x^（3）e, 10.8 ：k 1.2, is observed for the oriented layers.     

Time-Resolved Femtosecond Degenerate Four-Wave Mixing in LiNbO3：Fe,Mg Crystal

Forward degenerate four-wave mixing （DFWM） processes are investigated with a femtosecond pulsed laser in lithium niobate crystal doubly-doped with magnesium and iron （LiNbO3：Fe, Mg）. The pulse energy dependence reveals a pure third-order nonlinear response, and the third-order nonlinear susceptibility x^（3） in the material is evaluated to be 4.96 × 10^-13 esu. The time-resolved DFWM process shows a response time of x^（3） shorter than 100fs, which is due to the nonresonant electronic nonlinearities. Our results indicate that LiNbO3 crystals have potentials for ultrafast real-time optical processing systems, which require a large and fast x^（3） optical nonlinearity.     

Solvent-vapour treatment induced performance enhancement of amplified spontaneous emission based on poly[2-methoxy-5-（2＇-ethyl-hexyloxy）-l, 4-phenylene vinylene]

In this work, performance enhancements of amplified spontaneous emission （ASE） from poly[2-methoxy-5-（2＇- ethyl-hexyloxy）-l,4-phenylene vinylene] （MEH-PPV） have been achieved via solvent vapour treatment. Correlations between the morphology of the film and the optical performance of polymer-based ASE are investigated. The active layers are characterised by atomic force microscopy and optical absorption. The results show that the solvent-vapour treatment can induce the MEH-PPV self-organisation into an ordered structure with a smooth surface, leading to enhanced optical gain. Thus the solvent-vapour treatment is a good method for improving the optical properties of the MEH-PPV.     

Resonant Third-Order Optical Nonlinearities of Poly（methyl methacrylate） Films Containing J-Like Aggregates of a Thiadicarbocyanine Dye

The third-order optical nonlinearities and responses of poly（methyl methacrylate） （PMMA） coating films containing J-like aggregates of a thiadicarbocyanine dye, 3,3＇-diethyl-2,2＇-thiadicarbocyanine iodide （DTDC1）, are measured by degenerate four-wave mixing （DFWM） technique under resonant conditions. The temporal profiles of the DFWM signal of PMMA coating films containing J-like aggregates of DTDC1 are found to consist of three components： i.e., the coherent instantaneous nonlinear response （electronic response） and the two slow responses uqth decay time constants of about 0.8ps and about 7.0ps. The electronic component of the effective third-order nonlinear susceptibility, χc^（3）, of one of the present films is as high as about 2.1×10^-8 esu, and the figure of merit of third-order nonlinearity F （F=χ^（3）/α） is evaluated to be about 1.9 ×10^-13 esu cm at 850nm.     

The Axial Spatial Evolution of Optical Field near the Talbot Plane of a Grating

The diffraction field distribution of a high density grating with a period of 2.5A is analyzed with the finite- difference time-domain （FDTD） method. The numerical results show the axial spatial evolution of the optical field near the 1/2 Talbot plane of the grating, which is verified by experiment with the scanning near-field optical microscopy （SNOM） technique. It should be helpful for understanding more clearly the diffraction behavior of a high density grating in micro- and nano-optics and be beneficial for applications of the Talbot effect, such as the near-field photolithography.     

Large Third-Order Optical Nonlinearity of a Novel Copper Phthalocyanine--Ferrocene Dyad

Third-order optical nonlinearity of a novel copper phthalocyanine-ferrocene dyad is measured by femtosecond forward degenerate four-wave mixing （DFWM） technique at 800 nm. The second-order hyperpolarizability of the novel copper phthalocyanine-ferrocene dyad is measured to be 1.74 ×10^-30 esu. This large and ultrafast thirdorder optical nonlinear response is mainly enhanced by the formation of intramolecular charge-transfer which can enhance the delocalized movements of the large π-electrons in the molecules.     

Femtosecond Third-Order Optical Nonlinearity of Au：Bi203 Nanocomposite Films

Ultrafast third-order optical nonlinearities of the as-deposited and annealed Au：Bi2O3 nanocomposite films deposited by magnetron cosputtering are investigated by using femtosecond time-resolved optical Kerr effect （OKE） and pump probe techniques. The third-order optical nonlinear susceptibility is estimated to be 2.6Ф×10^- 10 esu and 1.8 × 10.9 esu at wavelength of 800nm, for the as-deposited and the annealed film, respectively. The OKE signal of the as-deposited film is nearly temporally symmetrical with a peak centred at zero delay time, which indicates the dominant contribution from intraband transition of conduction electrons. For the annealed film, the existence of a decay process in OKE signal implies the important contribution of hot electrons. These characteristics are in agreement with the hot electron dynamics observed in pump probe measurement.     

Multilayer Au/TiO2Composite Films with Ultrafast Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Properties

We report on the ultrafast third-order optical nonlinearity in multilayer Au/TiO2 composite films fabricated on quartz substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique. The linear optical properties of the films are determined and optical absorption peaks due to surface plasmon resonance of Au particles are observed at about 590hm. The third-order optical nonlinearities of the films are investigated by z-scan method using a femtosecond laser （50 fs） at the wavelength of 800 nm. The sample showed fast nonlinear optical responses with nonlinear absorption coefficient and nonlinear refractive index being -3.66 × 10^-10 m/W and -2.95 × 10^-17 m^2/W, respectively. The results also show that the nonlinear optical effects increase with the increasing Au concentration in the composite films.     

Simultaneous Effects of External Electric Field and Conduction Band Nonparabolicity on Optical Properties of a GaAs Quantum Dot Embedded at the Center of a GaAlAs Nano-Wire

An investigation of the optical properties of a GaAs spherical quantum dot which is located at the center of a Ga1-xAlx As cylindrical nano-wire has been performed in the presence of an external electric field. The band nonparabolieity effect is also considered using the energy dependent effective mass approximation. The energy eigenvalues and corresponding wave functions are calculated by finite difference approximation and the reliability of calculated wave functions is checked by computing orthogonality. Using computed energy eigenvalues and wave functions, the linear, third-order nonlinear and total optical absorption coefficients and refractive index changes are examined in detail. It is found that （i） Presence of electric field causes both blue and red shifts in absorption spectrum; （ii） The absorption coefficients shift toward lower energies by taking into account the conduction band nonparabolicity; （iii） For large values of electric field the effect of conduction band nonparabolieity is less dominant and parabolic band is estimated correctly; （iv） In the presence of electric field and conduction band nonparabolicity the nonlinear term of absorption coefficient rapidly increases by increasing incident optical intensity. In other words, the saturation in optical spectrum occurs at lower incident optical intensities.     

Optical bistability in tunable fiber laser using fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer

In this letter, a novel mechanism of hybrid optical bistability is proposed by using nonlinear mechanism in the frequency domain. This device is based on electro-optical feedback through the fiber Bragg grating on piezoelectric transducer (PZT) to tune continuous wave (CW) fiber laser. The optical bistable characteristics for two manners of separately alternating input power and bias voltage are discussed. The smallest wavelength shift of the order of 0.001 nm needed to realize a switching process in this optical bistability device is estimated. The potential applications of this device in the optical fiber sensor technique are also discussed.