Temperature and spectral dependence of the nonlinear index of ruby via nondegenerate two-wave mixing

Abstract

We have studied the nonlinear index of refraction of pink ruby between 565 nm and 610 nm using nondegenerate two-wave mixing at 77 K and 294 K. Our new results support the model originally proposed by Venkatesan and McCall based on the large cross section of the transition from the Kramers doublets to the charge transfer band. In addition, we show that two-wave mixing can be used for accurate determination of the 2E lifetime under conditions where radiation trapping makes fluorescence decay measurements difficult.