Abstract

We identify a cloud of plasmon-resonant particles as an ultimate low-power third-order nonlinear-optic medium that may be suitable for configuring large holographic optical elements in space. We compute the third-order susceptibility and the saturation power density of such a cloud in a space environment. We find that electrostatic repulsion of the particles because of charging by the background plasma dominates as the effective internal pressure of the cloud. The pump-power density required for configuring a space hologram in a cloud of plasmon-resonant particles for 100-μm radiation under ideal conditions is computed to be ~1 W/m² for a background plasma density and an electron temperature of 10⁸ cm⁻³ and 1 eV, respectively. The scaling behavior of the pump-power density with the radiation wavelength and the cloud thickness is exhibited and compared with results for nonresonant particles.

© 1983 Optical Society of America

Phase conjugation of a bulk wave by surface plasmons

Kikuo Ujihara
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(5) 610-616 (1983)

Nonlinear optics in aerosols

A. Jay Palmer
Opt. Lett. 5(2) 54-55 (1980)

Intracavity adaptive optic compensation of phase aberrations. III: Passive and active cavity study for a large N_eq resonator

Kurt Edmund Oughstun
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(3) 282-302 (1983)

Analysis of optical spectra by Fourier methods: filtering and least-squares regression in reciprocal space

D. E. Aspnes and H. Arwin
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(12) 1759-1764 (1983)

Lasing characteristics of a Nd³⁺:YAG laser with a long optical-fiber resonator

Masataka Nakazawa, Masamitsu Tokuda, and Naoya Uchida
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 73(6) 838-842 (1983)