Degree Department

Month

Dispersion of the Nonlinear Refractive Index of CS₂ in the Spectral Range of 9-11 μm (open access)

Dispersion of the Nonlinear Refractive Index of CS₂ in the Spectral Range of 9-11 μm

The nonlinear refractive index (n2) of room temperature liquid CS2 in the wavelength range of 9 to 11 micrometers is measured. A line tunable hybrid C02 TEA laser and amplifier system is used for the experiments. In these measurements the well known photoacoustic method is utilized to observe the onset of whole beam self-focusing. The photoacoustic signal in a CS2 cell, much longer than the confocal parameter, is monitored. The departure of the acoustic signal from linear growth marks the critical power for the onset of nonlinearity. It is experimentally verified that the phenomenon is power dependent as expected from self-focusing theory. The value of n2 is then calculated from the theoretical model of self focusing. Measurements of the on-axis irradiance transmitted through the nonlinear material as well as the measurements of beam distortion are used to verify the validity of the photoacoustic method. In all the measurements the on-axis intensity was smaller than the calculated threshold intensity for stimulated Brillouin scattering. The back reflection was monitored to make sure that stimulated Brillouin scattering was not playing a role in the phenomenon.
Date: May 1987
Creator: Mohebi, Mehrdad
System: The UNT Digital Library