Femtosecond laser-induced birefringence and transient grating in lead(II) phthalocyanine-doped hybrid silica gel glasses

Ultrafast nonlinear optical properties of lead(II) phthalocyanine (PbPc)-doped silica gel glasses were investigated using a femtosecond optical Kerr shutter (OKS) setup at wavelength of 800 nm. The nonlinear response time of the PbPc-doped silica gel glasses was measured to be less than 90 fs. Measurements for the dependence of Kerr signals on the polarization angle between pump and probe beams showed that the Kerr signals induced by 30-fs pulses arose mainly from photoinduced birefringence effect and not from a laser-induced transient grating as observed when using a 200-fs pulse laser.