Abstract

Nonlinear mixing of the subharmonic wave with the waves recording principal grating is studied taking as an example spatial subharmonics in CdTe. An importance of optical amplification is shown experimentally for the efficiency of subharmonic generation, but not for the threshold of its excitation. Configuration is proposed for grating recording in which the subharmonic wave is enhanced due to optical interaction with the pump waves. It is shown that subharmonic intensity can be increased more than one order of magnitude by appropriate choice of the polarizations or intensity ratio of the pump beams.

© 2001 Optical Society of America