Ultrafast laser-induced index grating in transparent insulators

An All-Optical Switching Based on Resonance Breaking With a Transient Grating

“…The switching response time fundamentally depends on the nonlinear material response time, which is reported to be s for Kerr-type nonlinear glasses due to electronic transitions [6], [8]; therefore, the switching time is virtually limited only by resonance breaking dynamics; which is not included and estimated in the study.…”

“…The implementation of all optical process of controlling light with light requires nonlinear medium. Although the material nonlinearity observed up to now is still quite low, third-order optical nonlinearity, namely, Kerr effect, is one of the fastest phenomenon that can be exploited to design a high-speed all-optical switching mechanism [6]. Furthermore, the modification of refractive index of Kerr-type medium in free space using holographic method was demonstrated experimentally, and a response time of few femtoseconds was reported [7], [8].…”

Demonstration of pulse controlled all-optical switch/modulator

“…The photon energy of the excitation source at 532 nm is 2.33 eV, and it is far away from the band gap of the polymeric material used in the experiment, which is about 5.3 eV [8]. Therefore, the nonlinear effect is transient and limited with the pulse duration [9].…”