Abstract

Transmission of intense laser beams through heterogeneous scattering media is considered. Effects of intensity limitation, self-recovery of the wave front of a transmitted beam, and bistable reflection associated with the laser-induced self-transparency (suppression of scattering) of such media are predicted because of the compensation of the linear refractive-index difference Δn_L of the heterocomponents of a medium by nonlinear change Δn_NL for different mechanisms of nonlinearity. Applications of these effects in lasers for Q switching and mode locking are discussed. The observation of self-transparency effects in several heterogeneous media (glass particles in toluene and nitrobenzene, and lead molybdenite powder) for cw Ar- and pulsed Nd- and CO₂-laser radiation is reported. Q switching and mode locking have also been demonstrated with a YAG:Nd laser using nonlinear scattering in a heterogeneous cell as a control element in a laser resonator.

© 1986 Optical Society of America

Nonlinear light propagation in a two-component heterogeneous medium

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