Abstract

The passage of one (or two) laser beams through a highly nonlinear medium is accompanied by several fundamentally interesting effects which have recently received renewed attention because of their potential uses. In particular, when a laser beam passes through a highly nonlinear thin film, the transmission will undergo various forms of spatial Intensity distribution (self-focusing, defocusing, bistability, bending, etc.) that can be utilized in optical switches and limiters. On the other hand, when two laser beams are mixed in the medium, mutual exchange of energy and creation of new diffracted beams can be used for image/beam manipulations, amplifications, and combining.

© 1988 Optical Society of America