Anisotropic nonlinear Kerr media: Z-scan characterization and interaction with hybridly polarized beams

Vectorial light-matter interaction -- exploring spatially structured complex light fields

“…The third-order nonlinear susceptibility was studied in anisotropic Barium Fluoride crystals. 106 and a large amount of literature is available on the collapse of op-tical vector fields. [107][108][109] The eigenmodes of optical fibers, including gradient-index, step-index and hollow-core photonic crystal fibers, are vector fields, 110 providing the natural choice for efficient communication links 111,112 and multiplexing.…”

Polarization rotation and singularity evolution of fundamental Poincaré beams through anisotropic Kerr nonlinearities

“…Moreover, we consider that the cubic-symmetry crystal (e.g. BaF 2 ) has an isotropic linear optical effect and an anisotropic third-order refractive nonlinearity [17,18]. Under the thin-sample approximation and the slowly varying envelope approximation, the lemon Poincaré beam at the exit plane of the crystal is expressed by…”

“…To investigate the effect of an anisotropic optical nonlinearity on fundamental Poincaré beams, the typical parameters unless otherwise mentioned are taken for numerical simulations as λ = 800 nm, ω = 2.5 mm, f = 200 mm, z = 0, ∆ϕ 0 = 1.2π, σ = −1.0, and δ = 0.2 in the entire analysis [18]. For the sake of simplicity, we consider that the principal axis coordinate system of the crystal coincides with the laboratory coordinate system of the fundamental Poincaré beams.…”

“…Due to the band structure and the point-group symmetry of the crystal, the nonlinear optical response is usually anisotropic. The polarization-structured light fields interacting with anisotropic nonlinear media give rise to novel nonlinear optical effects and applications, including the redistribution of the spin angular momentum [17,18], enhancement of optical limiting effects [19], controllable field collapse and subsequent filamentation [20], and laser beam shaping [21].…”