Abstract

We have performed nondegenerate four-wave mixing measurements on Cr³⁺ ions in three crystals: BeAl₂O₄, Gd₃Sc₂Ga₃O₁₂, and LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉. Two laser beams of the same frequency were used to resonantly pump one of the absorption bands of Cr³⁺, and probe beams with three different wavelengths ranging from 442 to 1064 nm were used to generate a signal from the laser-induced population grating. The observed four-wave mixing signal strength was found to increase as the wavelength of the probe beam was decreased. A model was utilized to explain these results based on the change in polarizability of the Cr³⁺ ions when they are in the metastable state versus the ground state, and it was found that the dispersion effects can be described by a single-oscillator model with the lowest-energy charge-transfer transition of Cr³⁺ making the dominant contribution to the signal.

© 1990 Optical Society of America

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