Abstract

Propagation of light through a Kerr medium has been extensively studied.¹ It is well known that when strong elliptically polarized light propagates through an isotropic nonlinear medium, the medium becomes biréfringent, which results in the self-induced rotation of the polarization ellipse. This effect can be understood in terms of the classical behavior of field amplitudes; however, if quantum fluctuations are taken into account, some new effects can occur, such as photon anti-bunching, squeezing, and the generation of discrete superposition of coherent states. So, there is growing interest in revealing those aspects of nonlinear propagation which are directly related to the quantum properties of the field.

© 1994 IEEE