Phase conjugation and four-wave mixing in a colloidal medium

We demonstrate phase conjugation by means of degenerate four-wave mixing from a colloidal crystal. The nonlinear medium is provided by a periodic spatial refractive index grating created in a colloidal suspension of dielectric microparticles trapped in the intensity distribution of two nearly copropagating interfering laser beams. Phase conjugation is achieved for a probe beam carrying orbital angular momentum as evidenced by the inversion of the topological charge of a phase singularity within the beam. The e ciency and nonlinear parameters of the colloidal crystal as well as its lattice properties are measured and compared to theoretical predictions and previous experimental work.

[1]  P. Liao,et al.  Continuous-wave backward-wave generation by degenerate four-wave mixing in ruby. , 1978, Optics letters.

[2]  A Yariv,et al.  Amplified reflection, phase conjugation, and oscillation in degenerate four-wave mixing. , 1977, Optics letters.

[3]  T L Koch,et al.  One-way coherent imaging through a distorting medium using four-wave mixing. , 1982, Optics letters.

[4]  P W Smith,et al.  Studies of self-focusing bistable devices using liquid suspensions of dielectric particles. , 1984, Optics letters.

[5]  A. Yariv,et al.  Phase-conjugate reflection by degenerate four-wave mixing in a nematic liquid crystal in the isotropic phase. , 1980, Optics letters.

[6]  N. Bloembergen.  Conservation laws in nonlinear optics , 1980 .

[7]  A Yariv,et al.  Spatial convolution and correlation of optical fields via degenerate four-wave mixing. , 1978, Optics letters.

[8]  L. Torner,et al.  Four-wave mixing of light beams with engineered orbital angular momentum in cold cesium atoms. , 2004, Optics letters.

[9]  P W Smith,et al.  Continuous-wave self-focusing and self-trapping of light in artificial Kerr media. , 1982, Optics letters.

[10]  M Cronin-Golomb,et al.  Exact solution of a nonlinear model of four-wave mixing and phase conjugation. , 1982, Optics letters.

[11]  E. Makeeva,et al.  Second harmonic generation in suspensions of spherical particles , 2003 .

[12]  I. Winkler,et al.  Optical phase conjugation of weak signals by using degenerate four-wave mixing. , 1992, Optics letters.

[13]  N. Clark,et al.  Shear-Induced Melting , 1981 .

[14]  P. Liao,et al.  cw optical wave‐front conjugation by saturated absorption in atomic sodium vapor , 1978 .

[15]  Clark,et al.  Laser-induced freezing. , 1985, Physical review letters.

[16]  P. Ewart,et al.  Two-dimensional phase-conjugate imaging of atomic distributions in flames by degenerate four-wave mixing. , 1989, Optics letters.

[17]  P W Smith,et al.  Use of a liquid suspension of dielectric spheres as an artificial Kerr medium. , 1982, Optics letters.

[18]  N. Clark,et al.  Shear-induced partial translational ordering of a colloidal solid , 1984 .

[19]  Robert W. Hellwarth,et al.  Generation of time-reversed wave fronts by nonlinear refraction* , 1977 .

[20]  S. M. Jensen,et al.  Observation of the time‐reversed replica of a monochromatic optical wave , 1978 .

[21]  Watson,et al.  Photonic band structure of fcc colloidal crystals. , 1996, Physical review letters.

[22]  D. Petrov,et al.  Optical Pumping of Orbital Angular Momentum of Light in Cold Cesium Atoms , 1999 .

[23]  P W Smith,et al.  Four-wave mixing in an artificial Kerr medium. , 1981, Optics letters.