Third order susceptibility, optical field induced

Poly(3-alkyl-a-thiophene) systems show significant third-order nonlinear susceptibilities ( ) Though, oligothiophenes have been studied for their third-order susceptibilities, accurate third-order optical nonlinearity data obtained by degenerate four-wave mixing or electric-field-induced second harmonic generation (EFISH) are difficult to attain reliably on samples with poor solubility characteristics (92MM1901). 

The first common method for molecular first hyperpolarizability determination is the electric field-induced second harmonic generation (EFISH) technique in solution [6-10]. This technique can be applied only to dipolar molecules. Under an applied external electric field, molecules in solution orient approximately in the direction of the field giving rise to second harmonic generation. The measured third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility is given by the following expression ... 

The first and third order terms in odd powers of the applied electric field are present for all materials. In the second order term, a polarization is induced proportional to the square of the applied electric field, and the. nonlinear second order optical susceptibility must, therefore, vanish in crystals that possess a center of symmetry. In addition to the noncentrosymmetric structure, efficient second harmonic generation requires crystals to possess propagation directions where the crystal birefringence cancels the natural dispersion leading to phase matching. 

The nonlinear optical responses induced in these Kerr experiments are a manifestation of the polarization generated by the third-order nonlinear susceptibility, a response cubic in the applied field E((a>, t). 

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