Abstract

Materials with third order nonlinearities are useful for all-optical guided wave devices such as directional couplers and interferometric modulators [1]. Gabel et al [2] were the first to report Degenerate Four-Wave Mixing (DFWM) in planar waveguides with a nonlinear guiding medium. The waveguides were fabricated in semiconductor doped glass (Corning 3-69) by an ion exchange process. In the present paper we report DFWM in a planar waveguide consisting of gelatin doped with metal particles. Experiments by Hache et al [3] on gold colloids indicate a value of x(3) = 10⁻⁸ esu with response times of < 5 psec for gold microparticles. We have obtained conjugate reflectivities near 1% for gelatin waveguides doped with gold and silver microparticles.

© 1989 Optical Society of America