Nonlinear optical memory effect
Abstract
Light propagating through random media produces characteristic speckle patterns, directly related to the large multitude of scattering events. This complex dynamics remarkably displays robustness to perturbation of the incoming light parameters, maintaining correlation in the scattered wavefront. This behavior is known as the optical memory effect. Here we unveil the properties of the nonlinear optical memory effect, which occurs when an optothermal nonlinearity perturbs the random material. The effect is characterized through a series of pump and probe experiments in silica aerogel, in the visible range. This additional degree of freedom further generalizes the memory effect, opening the road to applications based on the nonlinear response of random media.
Citation
Fleming , A , Conti , C , Vettenburg , T & Di Falco , A 2019 , ' Nonlinear optical memory effect ' , Optics Letters , vol. 44 , no. 19 , pp. 4841-4844 . https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.44.004841
Publication
Optics Letters
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0146-9592Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2019 Optical Society of America. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.44.004841
Description
Funding: A.D.F. and A.F. thank EPSRC (EP/M508214/1). C.C. acknowledges QuantERA ERA-NET Co-fund 731473 (Project QUOM-PLEX). A.D.F. is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 819346).Collections
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