Ultrafast optical image processing based on third-harmonic generation in organic thin films

Abstract

We report on the use of the noncollinear third-harmonic generation in an amorphous polymer film operating in the eye safe and telecommunication compatible near-infrared range to perform ultrafast all-optical two-dimensional (2D) image processing at 1550nm using 100fs pulses. The background-free and nondegenerate outputs at 517nm are easily spatially filtered and detected with low cost electronic components. We describe this Fourier transform based technique and demonstrate its application to the classical problem of 2D image recognition.