title: Third-order nonlinearity enhancement in an artificial Kerr medium through bulk intrinsic birefringence.
abstract: Laser-induced circular birefringence measurements have been performed on a liquid suspension of polymer microellipsoids in order to study its optical nonlinearity as a function of the host liquid's refractive index n(h). The results show that the large values obtained for the chi1221((3)) term (1.6 x 10(-8) esu for n(h) = 1.330) can be explained with an intrinsic birefringence of the microellipsoids relative to their geometrical axes. The obtained values for the refractive indices are n || = 1.391 and n perpendicular = 1.368.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Spirito
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pizzoferrato
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Zammit
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marinelli
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scudieri
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martellucci
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romagnoli