T. Schneider et al., Femtosecond index grating in barium flouride: efficient self-diffraction and enhancement of surface SHG, APPL SURF S, 154, 2000, pp. 565-570
A transient refractive index grating is formed in barium fluoride crystals
under irradiation with femtosecond laser pulses from two non-collinear beam
s. At low intensities energy coupling takes place. At high intensities, a t
ypical self-diffraction pattern is obtained with a diffraction efficiency b
etter than 10%. Simultaneously, an enhancement of the SHG signal from the s
urface, as well as the generation and diffraction of the third harmonic is
observable. For all effects the nonlinear Kerr-effect is responsible, with
the response time being limited only by the temporal pulse shape. (C) 2000
Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.