Nonlinear Optics Group (NLO)

The Nonlinear Optics Group conducts research on a variety of nonlinear optical effects, materials, and devices including nonlinear interactions in waveguides, nonlinear signal processing, optical power limiting, and characterizing materials response at picosecond and nanosecond scales.

A 780 nm fs pump pulse is used to generate a white-light continuum (WLC) in 2.4 atm of Kr gas. The spectrum from the WLC is enhanced by the injection of a 650 nm seed pulse which is overlapped spatially and temporally with the 780 nm pulse. In terms of average power, a 1 mW seed pulse enhances the spectrum generated from the 0.4 W pump pulse more than 4 times! This intense radiation is then used in our nonlinear spectroscopic measurements.