RESONANT AND NONRESONANT EFFECTS IN PHOTONIC GLASSES

Over the past ten years, a large amount of research has been done investigating materials, both glasses and polymers, which exhibit large non-linear susceptibilities, chi(3). The measured chi(3) for a wide range of inorganic glasses are presented and discussed in terms of chemical composition. The experimental results from a single mode fiber with a large non-resonant chi(3) are presented. An argument is made for the choice of the non-resonant non-linear effect in cylindrical optical waveguides as the most practical route toward the realization of devices utilizing non-linear interactions. The argument takes into account various aspects that influence device performance other than the magnitude of chi(3) alone. A brief discussion of the resonant non-linear phenomena derived from band-filling in semiconductor doped glasses and the photorefractive effect in SiO2-GeO2 waveguide materials is included for comparison.