Determination of the inertial contribution to the nonlinear refractive index of air, N2, and O2 by use of unfocused high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses

Erik T. Nibbering (1) , G. Grillon (1) , Michel A. Franco (1) , Bernard Prade (1) , André Mysyrowicz (1)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée

We analyze the spectral changes that occur when unfocused intense femtosecond pulses at 800 nm propagate through different atomic and molecular gases. The observed red shift in the self-phase-modulated spectra after propagation through N2, O2, and air is attributed to a delayed change of the nonlinear refractive index, a consequence of the molecular response to impulsive excitation of rotational coherences. We compare these results on the nonlinear refractive index with those obtained from Ar, Xe, and SF6.

Keywords: nonlinear optics; kerr effect

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Erik T. Nibbering, G. Grillon, Michel A. Franco, Bernard Prade, André Mysyrowicz. Determination of the inertial contribution to the nonlinear refractive index of air, N2, and O2 by use of unfocused high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 1997, 14 (3), pp.650-660. ⟨10.1364/JOSAB.14.000650⟩. ⟨hal-00465603⟩