Open AccessNonlinear optical response of colloidal suspensions
Author(s) -
Woei Ming Lee,
Ramy ElGanainy,
Demetrios N. Christodoulides,
Kishan Dholakia,
E. M. Wright
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.010277
Subject(s) - virial coefficient , nonlinear system , colloid , suspension (topology) , optics , exponential function , materials science , kerr effect , physics , thermodynamics , chemistry , mathematics , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics , homotopy , pure mathematics
We experimentally probed the nonlinear optical response of aqueous nano-colloidal suspensions to provide a test of the theoretical approaches that have been proposed for the nonlinearity, namely an exponential model, an artificial Kerr medium, and a non-ideal gas model. The best agreement with experiment is found using the non-ideal gas model for the colloidal suspension which in turn can be used to infer values for the second virial coefficient of the medium and the nonlinear coefficients.