Experimental Study of the Resonant Rovibrational Nonlinearity of CO2 and CO in the Mid-IR

Abstract

We present time- and frequency-resolved measurements of self-focusing and self-defocusing of 4.3–4.8 μm Fe:ZnSe laser pulses tuned near rovibrational transitions of CO2 And CO. We estimate the resonant nonlinearity of the air at 4.3 μm and discuss the novel nonlinear optics of simple molecules.