Applications of low-saturation-intensity nonlinear-optical materials

Low-saturation-intensity, highly nonlinear materials, such as boric-acid glass doped with fluorescein1 and lead-tin fluorophosphate glasses doped with acridine dyes,2 are promising candidates for applications involving the nonlinear mixing of light from conventional and natural sources. One such application which we recently demonstrated is a passive method for recovering an image that has been distorted by passing through a thin phase-aberrating medium.3 This technique could, in principle, be used to compensate for the effects of atmospheric turbulence in astronomical observation. In this paper, we will discuss the feasibility of realizing these device applications.