Abstract

Two-waving mixing is a process in which the interference of two waves in a medium with a third-order susceptibility modulates the index of refraction of the medium, causing energy exchange between the two beams. The effect has been used to study the resonance enhanced nonlinear index of refraction in pink ruby.^1,2 In Ref. 1, the sign of the real part of the nonlinear index was shown to be the same on both sides of line center at 488 and 580 nm. This is contrary to a prediction one would make using a two-level model for the nonlinear index of refraction. We present the results from a series of experiments aimed at determining the origin of the nonlinear index of refraction in ruby.

© 1990 Optical Society of America