title: Nonlinear optical response of colloidal suspensions.
abstract: We experimentally probed the nonlinear optical response of aqueous nano-colloidal suspensions to provide a test of the theoretical approaches that have been proposed for the nonlinearity, namely an exponential model, an artificial Kerr medium, and a non-ideal gas model. The best agreement with experiment is found using the non-ideal gas model for the colloidal suspension which in turn can be used to infer values for the second virial coefficient of the medium and the nonlinear coefficients.
authors.affiliation: SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom. wml6@st-andrews.ac.uk
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: El-Ganainy
authors.forename: D N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Christodoulides
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dholakia
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009391:Nephelometry and Turbidimetry / Q000379:methods*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids