Nonlinear optical effects in absorbing fluids: some undergraduate experiments

Abstract

While nonlinear optics has become increasingly important in theory and applications few undergraduate laboratories include nonlinear optics experiments in their program. The purpose of the paper is to describe a few simple experiments and their theoretical interpretations at the senior undergraduate level. Liquids containing traces of absorbing dyes were used as the nonlinear media. Nonlinear effects such as self-diffraction and phase conjugation were observed with laser power as low as 100 mW.

Investigation of laser fundamentals using a helium-neon laser

“…Within months Javan and associates developed the first gas laser, the helium-neon (He-Ne) laser, which emitted light in both the infrared (at 1.15 µm) [5] and visible (at 632.8 nm) [6] spectral regions. Since then, lasers have come to the forefront of modern technology and have been the subject of numerous investigations as well as an integral tool in a variety of experiments [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Due to its increasing importance, our respective institutions required the creation of an optics programme that included the development of upper division lecture, laboratory, and research courses.…”