Highly efficient and two-photon excited stimulated Rayleigh-Bragg scattering in organic solutions

The properties of backward stimulated Rayleigh-Bragg scattering (SRBS) in three highly two-photon active AF-chromophores solutions in tetrahydrofuran (THF) have been investigated using 816-nm and 8-ns pump laser beam. The nonlinear reflectivity R, spectral structure, temporal behavior, and phase-conjugation capability of the backward SRBS output have been measured, respectively. Under the same experimental condition, the pump threshold for SRBS in three solution samples can be significantly (∼one order of magnitude) lower than that for stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in the pure solvent (THF). With the optimized concentration value and at a moderate pump energy (∼1.5 mJ) level, the measured nonlinear reflectivity was R ≥ 35% for the 2 cm-long solution sample, while for the SBS from a pure solvent sample of the same length was R 4.7%. The peculiar features of very low pump threshold, no spectral shift, tolerant pump spectral linewidth requirement (≤1 cm^-1), and phase-conjugation capability are favorable for those nonlinear photonics applications, such as highly efficiency phase-conjugation reflectors for high-brightness laser oscillator/amplifier systems, special imaging through turbid medium, self-adaptive remote optical sensing, as well as for optical rangefinder and lidar systems.