SELF-INDUCED TRANSPARENCY AND SELF-INDUCED DARKENING WITH A NONLINEARFREQUENCY-DOUBLING POLARIZATION INTERFEROMETER

It is shown that the system polarizer-frequency-doubling crystal(s)-an alyzer has a nonlinear transmission for the fundamental wave. The inte nsity-dependent transmission of this device is due to the nonlinear ph ase shift that the fundamental beam obtains in the nonlinear crystal a s a result of cascaded second-order processes. Depending on the mutual orientation of the polarizer and the analyzer such effects as self-in duced transparency and self-induced darkening can be realized.