Optical Kerr shutter operable with two colinearly polarized beams and utilizing optical rotatory dispersion

We present a new scheme for an optical Kerr shutter operating with colinearly polarized pump and probe beams. When a nonlinear optical medium has optical rotatory dispersion (ORD), an optical Kerr shutter can be operated with two colinearly polarized beams, each having a different wavelength, because the pump polarization rotates relative to the probe polarization by ORD. We estimate the efficiency of the ORD-Kerr shutter as a function of the rotational angle |Δη 0 | of the pump polarization relative to the probe polarization at the exit. The optimized |Δη 0 | is 66.5° and the signal intensity is 52% that of the conventional 45° Kerr shutter. This effect is experimentally demonstrated with solutions of optically active hexahelicene in CS 2 . The ORD-Kerr shutter signal is observed clearly and the signal intensity agrees with the calculated value.