title: Higher-order nonlinearities revisited and their effect on harmonic generation.
abstract: We report on harmonic generation experiments and calculations in air to investigate the theoretical prediction of Kolesik et al. [Opt. Lett. 35, 2550 (2010)] for testing the recently proposed higher-order Kerr effect model. Our observations show that although the fifth-order nonlinearity is non-negligible, the overall defocusing effect via the higher-order nonlinearities is sufficiently small that plasma formation should be a main defocusing mechanism in high power filamentation. We also explore cross-phase modulation via the optical Kerr effect, and find that the higher-order nonlinearities can significantly alter the phase matching of harmonic generation.
authors: Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA.
authors: Darshana L
authors: DL
authors: Weerawarne
authors: School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors: Xiaohui
authors: X
authors: Gao
authors: School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
authors: Alexander L
authors: AL
authors: Gaeta
authors: Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Binghamton University, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA.
authors: Bonggu
authors: B
authors: Shim