Third-order nonlinear optical properties of bismuth-borate glasses measured by conventional and thermally managed eclipse Z scan

Third-order nonlinearity one order of magnitude larger than silica is measured in bismuth-borate glasses presenting a fast response (<200 fs). The results for the sign and magnitude of the nonlinearity were obtained using a combination of the eclipse Z scan with thermal nonlinearity managed Z scan, whereas the Kerr shutter technique was employed to obtain the electronic time response of the nonlinearity, all performed with 76 MHz repetition rate 150 fs pulses at 800 nm. Conventional Z scans in the picosecond regime at 532 and 1064 nm were also independently performed, yielding the values of the third-order nonlinear susceptibilities at those wavelengths. The results obtained for the femtosecond response, enhanced third-order nonlinearity of this glass (with respect to silica), place this glass system as an important tool in the development of photonics devices. Electro-optical modulators, optical switches, and frequency converters are some of the applications using second-order nonlinear properties of the Bi-glass based on the rectification model

The role of Bi2O3 on the thermal, structural and optical properties of tungsten-phosphate glasses

Glasses in the ternary system (70 – x)NaPO3-30WO3-xBi2O3, with x = 0–30 mol %, were prepared by the conventional melt-quenching technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements were performed to confirm the noncrystalline nature of the samples. The influence of the Bi2O3 on the thermal, structural, and optical properties was investigated. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed that the glass transition temperature, Tg, increases from 405 to 440 °C for 0 ≤ x ≤ 15 mol % and decreases to 417 °C for x = 30 mol %. The thermal stability against devitrification decreases from 156 to 67 °C with the increase of the Bi2O3 content. The structural modifications were studied by Raman scattering, showing a bismuth insertion into the phosphate chains by Bi–O–P linkage. Furthermore, up to 15 mol % of Bi2O3 formation of BiO6 clusters is observed, associated with Bi–O–Bi linkage, resulting in a progressive break of the linear phosphate chains that leads to orthophosphate Q0 units. The linear refractive index, n0, was measured using the prism-coupler technique at 532, 633, and 1550 nm, whereas the nonlinear (NL) refractive index, n2 was measured at 1064 nm using the Z-scan technique. Values of 1.58 ≤ n0 ≤ 1.88, n2 ≥ 10–15 cm2/W and NL absorption coefficient, α2 ≤ 0.01 cm/GW, were determined. The linear and NL refractive indices increase with the increase of the Bi2O3 concentration. The large values of n0 and n2, as well as the very small α2, indicate that these materials have large potential for all-optical switching applications in the near-infrared

Nonlinear characterization of materials using the D4σ method inside a Z-scan 4f-system

We show that direct measurement of the beam radius in Z-scan experiments using a CCD camera at the output of a 4f -imaging system allows higher sensitivity and better accuracy than Baryscan. One of the advantages is to be insensitive to pointing instability of pulsed lasers because no hard (physical) aperture is employed as in the usual Z-scan. In addition, the numerical calculations involved here and the measurement of the beam radius are simplified since we do not measure the transmittance through an aperture and it is not subject to mathematical artifacts related to a normalization process, especially when the diffracted light intensity is very low

D4σ nonlinear measurement inside a 4f-Z-scan system

The D4σ method using a 4f-Z-scan system is presented in order to increase the sensitivity and the resolution in Z-scan measurements. The numerical calculations and the experimental results validate our approach

Three-dimensional spatial solitons in CS2

International audienc

Third-order nonlinearities and other properties of molybdenum lead-pyrophosphate glass

Glasses in the binary system (100-x)Pb2P2O7-xMoO3, with x = 10 – 80 mol %, were synthesized by conventional melt-quenching technique. Thermal analysis, linear optical absorption, refractive index measurements, Raman scattering and nonlinear (NL) optical experiments were performed to characterize the samples. The dependence of MoO3 content on thermal, structural and optical properties was investigated. Molybdenum oxide increases both the glass transitions temperature and thermal stability against devitrification up to 50 mol % due to formations of P-O-Mo linkages and the glass network connectivity increases. The nonlinear optical properties were studied at 1064 nm and 532 nm with pulses of ≈17 ps. The NL refractive index measured was +10-19 m2/W at both wavelengths for samples with different relative concentrations of the constituent compounds. At 1064 nm we determined that the two-photon absorption coefficient, , is smaller than the minimum that we can measure ( <0.01 cm/GW) while at 532 nm we measured  0.25 cm/GW. The nonlinear response of the samples is attributed to contributions from the lone electron pairs of Pb2+, MoO3 clusters, and to Mo5+ and Mo4+ ions

Techniques for nonlinear optical characterization of materials: a review

Various techniques to characterize the nonlinear (NL) optical response of centro-symmetric materials are presented and evaluated with emphasis on the relationship between the macroscopic measurable quantities and the microscopic properties of photonic materials. NL refraction and NL absorption of the materials are the phenomena of major interest. The dependence of the NL refraction and NL absorption coefficients on the nature of the materials was studied as well as on the laser excitation characteristics of wavelength, intensity, spatial profile, pulse duration and pulses repetition rate. Selected experimental results are discussed and illustrated. The various techniques currently available were compared and their relative advantages and drawbacks were evaluated. Critical comparisons among established techniques provided elements to evaluate their accuracies and sensitivities with respect to novel methods that present improvements with respect to the conventional techniques

Near-infrared Kerr nonlinearity of Pb(PO3)2–WO3 glasses

We report measurements of the nonlinear refractive index, n 2 , and the nonlinear absorption coefficient, α 2 , of Pb ( PO 3 ) 2 – WO 3 glasses. The measurements were performed using 100 fs (17 ps) laser pulses at 800 nm (1064 nm). Positive values of n 2 ∼ 10 − 19 m 2 / W and negligible α 2 were measured. The results show that the nonlinearity is faster than 100 fs and it is observed an increase of n 2 with the increasing of the WO 3 amount in the samples. The Boling, Glass, and Owyoung model, based on the semiclassical harmonic oscillator model, was used to predict the values of n 2 , with basis on the values of the linear refractive index of the samples

Measurements of the third- and fifth-order optical nonlinearities of water at 532 and 1064 nm using the D4σ method

The nonlinear response of liquid water was investigated at 1064 and 532 nm using a Nd:YAG laser delivering pulses of 17 ps and its second harmonic. The experiments were performed using the D4σ method combined with the Z-scan technique. Nonlinear refractive indices of third- and fifth-order were determined, as well as the three-photon absorption coefficient, for both wavelengths. A good agreement was found between theory and experiment