Antiresonant ring interferometric nonlinear spectroscopy for nonlinear-optical measurements

Abstract

We describe a sensitive and simple single-beam technique to measure simultaneously the real and the imaginary contributions to the complex optical nonlinearity (the nonlinear refraction and absorption). We call this technique antiresonant ring interferometric nonlinear spectroscopy (ARINS). An antiresonant ring interferometer, which has improved stability, is used to detect very small changes in the phase and the amplitude of an optical beam. This allows very low intensities to be used and eliminates many interfering processes present in other techniques that require higher intensities. We demonstrate ARINS by measuring the optical nonlinearities of bulk ZnS, KDP, and C(70) thin films.