Kerr effect

The Kerr effect is a change in a material's refractive index quadratic in an applied electric field. A static applied electric field can produce linear birefringence; the optical field itself can also produce an intensity-dependent refractive index in nonlinear optics.

An intensity-dependent refractive index produced by the optical field itself. In a simple instantaneous isotropic model, $n=n_0+n_{2}I$. A transversely nonuniform intensity produces self-focusing for positive $n_2$ and self-defocusing for negative $n_2$. Temporal intensity variation produces self-phase modulation. These are consequences of a third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility, distinct from a static applied-field electro-optic Kerr effect.

An ideal two-mode intensity-intensity coupling makes the phase of each mode depend on the other's photon number. With this sign convention, evolution for time $t$ sends a mode-1 coherent amplitude to $\alpha e^{-i\chi t{n}_2}$ when mode 2 has definite occupation. This single-mode unitary model does not by itself establish a strong, noiseless interaction between real travelling single photons.

A one-photon polarization qubit can conditionally rotate another mode's coherent amplitude: the horizontal branch leaves $\alpha$ unchanged and the vertical branch gives $\alpha e^{i\Theta }$. The output is generally entangled. Measuring the polarization in a superposition basis can erase the branch label and prepare a coherent superposition of the two amplitudes.

Normalize the initial polarization qubit and its analysing wave-plate transformation. For a conditional phase rotation of $\pi$, a vertical detection has the displayed probability and prepares $N(|\alpha ⟩+e^{i\varphi }|-\alpha ⟩)$. At $\alpha =0,\varphi =\pi$, that outcome has zero probability, explaining the singular normalization of the absent branch.

A beam's transverse intensity changes its own refractive index. For positive nonlinear index and a bright centre, the accumulated phase has the curvature of a converging lens. For $I(r)=I_0{e}^{-2r^2/w^2}$ over a short length $L$, the in-medium thin-lens approximation gives $1/f=4n_2{I}_{0}L/(n_0{w}^2)$. Negative $n_2$ instead produces self-defocusing.

The electro-optic Kerr effect produces linear birefringence proportional to the square of a static applied electric field. Defining the Kerr effect coefficient $K$ by $\Delta n={\lambda }_{0}K{E}^2$, a length $L$ produces phase retardation $\delta =2\pi KL{E}^2$. A switchable quarter-wave plate requires $|\delta |=\pi /2$ modulo $2\pi$, with fixed principal axes. This differs from the Faraday effect, whose eigenpolarizations are circular polarizations.