Abstract

The phenomenon of transient optical gratings generated from interfering laser beams has been studied intensively for a long time [1]. A general feature in most of these investigations was the fact that these gratings represented a quasi steady state and were present, usually, in the whole sample. With the advent of state-of-the-art ultrashort pulse lasers, a new feature has entered the game [2]: due to the high intensity achievable, non-resonant processes can be exploited for the formation of the grating which, hence, appears and disappears instantaneously with the laser pulses. In this contribution, we report on new phenomena, associated with this new feature: we observe strong third harmonic generation with an efficiency of several percent due to self-phase matching, and we show how self diffraction and diffraction of further beams by the grating can be exploited for ultrafast optical switching.

© 2002 Optical Society of America