Abstract

Coherent effects have already been predicted in four-wave mixing phenomena for resonant media when pump and probe beams (nondegenerated in frequency) overlap in time and space within the sample.¹ We report here on an innovating theoretical analysis in a classical interferometric configuration where pump and probe beams, fully degenerate in frequency, copropagate into an isotropic nonresonant medium. In that case, beside the nonlinear phase shift induced on the probe beam through the classical Kerr effect, we must add new coherent terms mainly driven by an oscillating time dependence at twice the probe optical frequency (similar analysis could be performed with resonant media too).

© 1994 IEEE