Abstract

The interaction of a short optical pulse with a medium whose optical properties are periodically modulated depends on the modulation phase at the moment of the pulse arrival. A technique of extracting the linear optical response function of such a medium to the cw optical field with a judiciously chosen series of short pulses rather than with cw optical fields is presented. An example of using the technique in numerical simulations is given, and a possible experimental arrangement is discussed. In particular, this technique may be convenient for extracting the optical properties of quantum wells modulated by a terahertz field.

© 2001 Optical Society of America

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