Spatio-temporal study of non-degenerate two-wave mixing in bacteriorhodopsin films

A spatio-temporal analysis of non-degenerate two-wave mixing in a saturable absorber, such as bacteriorhodopsin (bR) film, is performed. To do this, a theoretical model describing the temporal variation of the intensities is developed by taking into account the dielectric constant as a function of bR population. A good agreement between theory and experimental measurements is obtained. Thus, the dependence of the optical gain and the main dielectric constant parameters are studied at different intensities and frequencies. As a result, the best intensity-frequency zones where higher coupling is reached are proposed, and it is also demonstrated that non-uniform patterns, which evolve over time as a function of frequency difference, can be observed. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America