Extraction of the frequency-domain optical response function of a periodically modulated medium with short optical pulses

The interaction of a short optical pulse with a medium whose optical proper ties are periodically modulated depends on the modulation phase at the mome nt of the pulse arrival. A technique of extracting the linear optical respo nse function of such a medium to the cw optical field with a judiciously ch osen series of short pulses rather than with cw optical fields is presented . An example of using the technique in numerical simulations is given, and a possible experimental arrangement is discussed. In particular, this techn ique may be convenient for extracting the optical properties of quantum wel ls modulated by a terahertz field. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.