Abstract

We modify the well-known photothermal beam deflection technique to study ultrafast nonlinearities. Using phase-sensitive detection we directly measure the temporal and polarization dynamics of nonlinear refraction (NLR) with sensitivity to optically induced phase changes of approximately $\lambda /20,000$. We use the relative polarization dependence of excitation and probe to separate the isotropic and reorientational components of the NLR.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

Beam deflection measurement of bound-electronic and rotational nonlinear refraction in molecular gases

Matthew Reichert, Peng Zhao, Jennifer M. Reed, Trenton R. Ensley, David J. Hagan, and Eric W. Van Stryland
Opt. Express 23(17) 22224-22237 (2015)

Temporal and polarization dependence of the nonlinear optical response of solvents

Peng Zhao, Matthew Reichert, Sepehr Benis, David J. Hagan, and Eric W. Van Stryland
Optica 5(5) 583-594 (2018)

Analysis of beam deflection measurements in the presence of linear absorption

Manuel R. Ferdinandus, Jennifer M. Reed, Kent L. Averett, F. Kenneth Hopkins, and Augustine Urbas
Opt. Mater. Express 7(5) 1598-1605 (2017)

Temporal, spectral, and polarization dependence of the nonlinear optical response of carbon disulfide

Matthew Reichert, Honghua Hu, Manuel R. Ferdinandus, Marcus Seidel, Peng Zhao, Trenton R. Ensley, Davorin Peceli, Jennifer M. Reed, Dmitry A. Fishman, Scott Webster, David J. Hagan, and Eric W. Van Stryland
Optica 1(6) 436-445 (2014)

Method of ultrafast beam rotation for single-shot, time-resolved measurements

Alex Spiro and Mary Lowe
Opt. Lett. 39(18) 5362-5365 (2014)