Abstract

The Specular Inverse Faraday Effect (SIFE) is the nonlinear optical effect of stimulation of a medium with a strong circularly polarized pump wave, resulting in alteration of the polarization state of a linearly polarized probe wave reflected from the medium's surface (see inset in Fig. 1). This effect has been recently demonstrated but not temporally resolved with picosecond optical pulses in various solids, including semiconductor,^1,2 diluted magnetic semiconductor,³ and superconducting materials.⁴ There is no obvious limitation (except the laser pulse duration) on the time resolution of the method in the study of transient effects. Here we report on first observation of transient incoherent and coherent SIFE.

© 1994 IEEE