Search Results (17)

Based on the two-dimensional (2D) nonlinear Schrödinger equation, we investigate the collapse dynamics of a vector vortex optical field (VVOF) in nonlinear Kerr media with parity–time (PT)-symmetric modulation. The critical power for the collapse of a VVOF in a Kerr-ROLP medium (Kerr medium with a real optical lattice potential) is derived. Numerical simulations indicate that the number, position, propagation distance, and collapse profile of the collapse of a VVOF in sine and cosine parity–time-symmetric potential (SCPT) Kerr media are closely related to the modulation depth, initial powers, and the topological charge number of a VVOF. The VVOF collapses into symmetric shapes during propagation in a Kerr-ROLP medium, and collapse shapes are sensitively related to the density of the PT-symmetric optical lattice potential. In addition, due to gain–loss, the VVOF will be distorted during propagation in the Kerr-SCPT medium, forming an asymmetric shape of collapse. The power evolution of the VVOF in a Kerr-SCPT medium as a function of the transmission distance with different modulating parameters and topological numbers is analyzed in detail. The introduction of PT-symmetric optical lattice potentials into nonlinear Kerr materials may provide a new approach to manipulate the collapse of the VVOF. Full article

The paper focuses on the problem of transverse electric wave propagation in a plane-shielded waveguide filled with a nonhomogeneous and nonlinear (Kerr) medium. The nonlinear part of the permittivity is characterized by the Kerr law in the focusing regime, while its linear part is a constant that is perturbed by a small continuous function. Such perturbation can be considered to be an attempt to take into account the inevitable presence of impurities in the medium, causing slight deviations in the dielectric permittivity. In the paper, the existence of solutions to the considered problem is proved, including solutions with and without linear counterparts. Some numerical results are presented as well. Full article

Multiband supercontinuum generation covering the bandwidth from 0.65 μm to 3.3 μm was demonstrated in a gas-filled hollow-core silica fiber pumped by chirped ultrashort pulses at 1.03 μm. The development of the SC spectrum into the mid-IR was initiated by cascade stimulated Raman scattering in gaseous D₂, which was used as an active medium filling the hollow core. The influence of the Kerr nonlinearity was studied by changing the linear chirp of the pump pulses. The influence of gas pressure and pump pulse energy on the SC generation was investigated. As high as 14% of pump quanta were converted to the wavelength range above 2 μm. Full article

In recent years, tremendous advancements have been made in various technologies such as far-infrared, low-frequency Raman, and two-dimensional (2D) Raman terahertz (THz) spectroscopies. A coherent method has emerged from numerous experimental and theoretical investigations of molecular dynamics in liquids by comparing linear and non-linear spectroscopic techniques. Intermolecular hydrogen bond vibration, molecular reorientation motion, and interaction between molecule/ionic solute and hydrogen bonds have been demonstrated to occur in the THz region, which are closely related to their physical/chemical properties and structural dynamics. However, precise probing of various modes of motion is difficult because of the complexity of the collective and cooperative motion of molecules and spectral overlap of related modes. With the development of THz science and technology, current state-of-the-art THz sources can generate pulsed electric fields with peak intensities of the order of microvolts per centimeter (MV/cm). Such strong fields enable the use of THz waves as the light source for non-linear polarization of the medium and in turn leads to the development of the emerging THz Kerr effect (TKE) technique. Many low-frequency molecular motions, such as the collective directional motion of molecules and cooperative motion under the constraint of weak intermolecular interactions, are resonantly excited by an intense THz electric field. Thus, the TKE technique provides an interesting prospect for investigating low-frequency dynamics of different media. In view of this, this paper first summarizes the research work on TKE spectroscopy by taking a solid material without low-frequency molecular motions as an example. Starting from the principle of TKE technology and its application in investigating the properties of solid matter, we have explored the low-frequency molecular dynamics of liquid water and aqueous solutions using TKE. Liquid water is a core of life and possesses many extraordinary physical and biochemical properties. The hydrogen bond network plays a crucial role in these properties and is the main reason for its various kinetic and thermodynamic properties, which differ from those of other liquids. However, the structure of the hydrogen bond network between water and solutes is not well known. Therefore, evaluating the hydrogen bond-related kinetic properties of liquid water is important. Full article

This paper focuses on electromagnetic transverse-electric wave propagation in a planar shielded waveguide filled with nonlinear medium. Instead of using the standard local Kerr (cubic) nonlinearity, we suggest a (nonlocal) modification of this law. In comparison with the standard formula, this modification does not produce infinitely many nonperturbative guided modes. In this research, we present the dispersion equation for propagation constants, eigenwaves and propagation constants via explicit formulas. The found results are compared with the ones relating to the corresponding linear problem and the nonlinear one with the classical Kerr’s law. Numerical results are also presented and discussed. Full article

We address the question of whether the presence of Kerr nonlinearity in multiple-scattering optical media offers any advantage with respect to the design of physical unclonable functions. Our results suggest that under certain conditions, nonlinear physical unclonable functions can be more robust against the potential cloning of the medium relative to their linear counterparts that have been exploited in the context of various cryptographic applications. Full article

In this study, the self-diffraction (SD) process proved to be a competitive method to achieve a seed pulse with high temporal contrast in ultra-intense lasers. Several different nonlinear, transparent Kerr media including BK7 glasses, AL₂O₃ and CVD diamonds were compared experimentally to obtain SD signals with high energy and high conversion efficiency. AL₂O₃, with a high third-order nonlinear coefficient and high laser damage threshold, was found to be the best medium to improve the conversion efficiency of SD signals. The highest first-order SD signal of 401.7 μJ was achieved, with the conversion efficiency at approximately 9.1%, when the incident pulse energy was 4.40 mJ. The temporal contrast of the obtained first-order SD signal was improved by 7 orders of magnitude to 10¹². As a result, this cleaning pulse will facilitate research involving ultra-intense laser systems and high-intensity laser–matter interactions. Full article

We studied the nonlinear optical response of metallic amorphous composite layers in terms of a self-phase-modulated, third-order Kerr nonlinearity. A nonlinear effective medium theory was used to describe low densities of gold and iridium nanoparticles embedded in an equally nonlinear host material. The fill fraction strongly influences the effective nonlinear susceptibility of the materials, increasing it by orders of magnitude in the case of gold due to localized surface plasmonic resonances. The enhancement of the nonlinear strength in amorphous composites with respect to the bulk material has an upper limit in metallic composites as dominating absorption effects take over at higher fill factors. Both saturated and induced absorption in the thin films of amorphous composites were observed depending on the selected frequency and relative position to the resonant frequency of electron excitation in the metallic inclusions. We demonstrated the depths to which thin films are affected by nonlinear enhancement effects. Full article

We study the time degradation of quantum information stored in a quantum memory device under a dissipative environment in a parameter range which is experimentally relevant. The quantum memory under consideration is comprised of an optomechanical system with additional Kerr nonlinearity in the optical mode and an anharmonic mechanical oscillator with quadratic nonlinearity. Time degradation is monitored, both in terms of loss of coherence, which is analyzed with the help of Wigner functions, as well as in terms of loss of amplitude of the original state, studied as a function of time. While our time trajectories explore the degree to which the stored information degrades depending upon the variation in values of various parameters involved, we suggest a set of parameters for which the original information can be retrieved without degradation. We identify a very interesting situation where the role played by the nonlinearity is insignificant, and the system behaves as if the information is stored in a linear medium. For this case, the information retrieval is independent of the coherence revival time and can be retrieved at any instant during the time evolution. Full article

Using the two-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger equation, the collapse dynamics of vortex beams in a Kerr medium with refractive index modulation and parity–time (PT) symmetric lattices are explored. The critical power for the collapse of vortex beams in a Kerr medium with real optical lattices (i.e., refractive index modulation lattices) was obtained and discussed. Numerical calculations showed that the number of self-focusing points, the locations of the collapse, and the propagation distances for collapse are sensitively dependent on the modulation factors, topological charge numbers, and initial powers. When the vortex optical field propagates in a Kerr medium with real optical lattices, the optical field will collapse into a symmetrical shape. However, the shape of the vortex beam will be chaotically distorted and collapse in asymmetric patterns during propagation in a Kerr medium with PT-symmetric lattices because of the presence of the complex refraction index. Introducing PT-symmetric lattices into nonlinear Kerr materials may offer a new approach to controlling the collapse of vortex beams. Full article

An optical Kerr gate (OKG) is an ultrafast optical switch based on the optical Kerr effect. The performance of a conventional OKG depends mainly on Kerr materials. Traditional Kerr materials do not demonstrate both large optical nonlinearity and an ultrafast response time. Therefore, the performance of a conventional OKG is limited by an inherent trade-off between high signal transmittance and fast switching time, which limits its application in many fields. We propose an improved femtosecond OKG with double gate pulses, based on the use of a birefringent crystal to realize an ultrashort switching time, even with a slow-response optical Kerr medium. We assessed the dependence of the double gate pulsed OKG (D-OKG)’s performance on the intensity ratio of the double gate pulses. A transmittance of 50% and a switching time of 142 fs were achieved. The D-OKG is convenient to construct, and its integrated performance is superior to that of a conventional OKG. Full article

Nanocomposites, i.e., materials comprising nano-sized entities embedded in a host matrix, can have tailored optical properties with applications in diverse fields such as photovoltaics, bio-sensing, and nonlinear optics. Effective medium approaches such as Maxwell-Garnett and Bruggemann theories, which are conventionally used for modeling the optical properties of nanocomposites, have limitations in terms of the shapes, volume fill fractions, sizes, and types of the nanoentities embedded in the host medium. We demonstrate that grating theory, in particular the Fourier Eigenmode Method, offers a viable alternative. The proposed technique based on grating theory presents nanocomposites as periodic structures composed of unit-cells containing a large and random collection of nanoentities. This approach allows us to include the effects of the finite wavelength of light and calculate the nanocomposite characteristics regardless of the morphology and volume fill fraction of the nano-inclusions. We demonstrate the performance of our approach by calculating the birefringence of porous silicon, linear absorption spectra of silver nanospheres arranged on a glass substrate, and nonlinear absorption spectra for a layer of silver nanorods embedded in a host polymer material having Kerr-type nonlinearity. The developed approach can also be applied to quasi-periodic structures with deterministic randomness or metasurfaces containing a large collection of elements with random arrangements inside their unit cells. Full article

The purpose of this paper is to present a new and accurate, fully explicit finite-difference time-domain method for modeling nonlinear electromagnetics. The approach relies on a stable algorithm based on a general vector auxiliary differential equation in order to solve the curl Maxwell’s equation in a frequency-dependent and nonlinear medium. The energy conservation and stability of the presented scheme are theoretically proved. The algorithms presented here can accurately describe laser pulse interaction with metals and nonlinear dielectric media interfaces where Kerr and Raman effects, as well as multiphoton ionization and metal dispersion, occur simultaneously. The approach is finally illustrated by simulating the nonlinear propagation of an ultrafast laser pulse through a dielectric medium transiently turning to inhomogeneous metal-like states by local free-electron plasma formation. This free carrier generation can also be localized in the dielectric region surrounding nanovoids and embedded metallic nanoparticles, and may trigger collective effects depending on the distance between them. The proposed numerical approach can also be applied to deal with full-wave electromagnetic simulations of optical guided systems where nonlinear effects play an important role and cannot be neglected. Full article

We have investigated numerically the dynamics of quantum Fisher information (QFI) and quantum entanglement (QE) of a two moving two-level atomic systems interacting with a coherent and thermal field in the presence of intrinsic decoherence (ID) and Kerr (non-linear medium) and Stark effects. The state of the entire system interacting with coherent and thermal fields is evaluated numerically under the influence of ID and Kerr (nonlinear) and Stark effects. QFI and von Neumann entropy (VNE) decrease in the presence of ID when the atomic motion is neglected. QFI and QE show an opposite response during its time evolution in the presence of a thermal environment. QFI is found to be more susceptible to ID as compared to QE in the presence of a thermal environment. The decay of QE is further damped at greater time-scales, which confirms the fact that ID heavily influences the system’s dynamics in a thermal environment. However, a periodic behavior of entanglement is observed due to atomic motion, which becomes modest under environmental effects. It is found that a non-linear Kerr medium has a prominent effect on the VNE but not on the QFI. Furthermore, it has been observed that QFI and QE decay soon under the influence of the Stark effect in the absence of atomic motion. The periodic response of QFI and VNE is observed for both the non-linear Kerr medium and the Stark effect in the presence of atomic motion. It is observed that the Stark, Kerr, ID, and thermal environment have significant effects during the time evolution of the quantum system. Full article

We investigated numerically the dynamics of quantum Fisher information (QFI) and entanglement for three- and four-level atomic systems interacting with a coherent field under the effect of Stark shift and Kerr medium. It was observed that the Stark shift and Kerr-like medium play a prominent role during the time evolution of the quantum systems. The non-linear Kerr medium has a stronger effect on the dynamics of QFI as compared to the quantum entanglement (QE). QFI is heavily suppressed by increasing the value of Kerr parameter. This behavior was found comparable in the cases of three- and four-level atomic systems coupled with a non-linear Kerr medium. However, QFI and quantum entanglement (QE) maintain their periodic nature under atomic motion. On the other hand, the local maximum value of QFI and von Neumann entropy (VNE) decrease gradually under the Stark effect. Moreover, no prominent difference in the behavior of QFI and QE was observed for three- and four-level atoms while increasing the value of Stark parameter. However, three- and four-level atomic systems were found equally prone to the non-linear Kerr medium and Stark effect. Furthermore, three- and four-level atomic systems were found fully prone to the Kerr-like medium and Stark effect. Full article