Abstract

A Sagnac interferometer, because of its fringe stability and ease of alignment, is a promising tool for pulsed mode interferometry. Unlike a Mach-Zehnder-type of pulsed interferometer, a Sagnac interferometer does not require active fringe stabilization. In this paper, nonlinear optical pulsed mode interferometry—an interferometer where one of the arms contains a nonlinear optical material—is considered. The optical source is a mode-locked pulsed picosecond Nd³⁺: YAG laser. Properties of this setup are analyzed. Experimental results, based on phase-conjugate nonlinear optics, are presented. Applications to picosecond optical switching are demonstrated.

© 1985 Optical Society of America