This chapter extends our discussions of optical effects to those due to third-order susceptibilities χ(3). The occurrence of third-order nonlinear phenomena is far less restrictive than for χ(2) processes discussed in the previous chapters; χ(3) processes occur to some degree in all materials. Historically, the effect was first reported in 1875 by the Scottish physicist, John Kerr, who discovered materials with induced birefringence that exhibits a quadratic dependence on the applied field. The mechanism for the χ(3) nonlinearity is attributed to distortions in the electron cloud surrounding an atom or molecule. A simple, classical model for the effect is presented in Chapter 3 using the anharmonic oscillator. ...
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