Propagation Effects Due to Nonlinear Absorption and Refraction Within a Thin Medium

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Abstract
External self-focusing and optical interference phenomena can appear in the transmitted field when a laser beam or pulse interacts with a thin nonlinear medium, and these effects have been investigated for different types of nonlinearity. Physical regimes have been considered where both nonlinear refraction and nonlinear absorption play important roles. Strong modulations in the transmitted irradiance can occur in principle when the incident-beam power is allowed to vary. This type of modulation does not generally die away as the power increases, moreover its amplitude and period will be markedly changed if the nonlinear absorption coefficient is allowed to increase. It is also shown that the shape of the incident transverse-beam profile strongly affects the nonlinear aberrations and interference effects, with implications for such applications as optical power limiting and transverse optical bistability.