Efficient instantaneous optical switching and frequency conversion on a femtosecond time scale

Author

Schmid, Reiner P. ; Reif, JPrgen

Author_Institution

Brandenburgische Technische Univ. Cottbus, Germany

fYear

2003

fDate

22-27 June 2003

Firstpage

460

Abstract

In this paper, new results about a transient femtosecond index grating in barium fluoride has been presented. There is a strong indication that the lifetime of the grating is only limited by the pulse width of the laser. Additionally, it is shown how the transient grating promotes highly efficient third-harmonic generation and diffraction due to a self phase matching mechanism. The immediate build-up and decay opens the way to an application as a femtosecond switching device.

Keywords

barium compounds; diffraction gratings; high-speed optical techniques; laser beams; optical harmonic generation; optical phase matching; optical switches; BaF₂; barium fluoride; diffraction; femtosecond index grating; femtosecond switching device; femtosecond time scale; frequency conversion; optical switching; self phase matching; third-harmonic generation; transient grating; Diffraction gratings; Frequency conversion; Laser beams; Nonlinear optics; Optical diffraction; Optical harmonic generation; Optical pulses; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Ultrafast optics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe, 2003. CLEO/Europe. 2003 Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7734-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEOE.2003.1313523

Filename

1313523