SIM PlanetQuest white-light fringe modeling: picometer accuracy calibration and estimation algorithms.

SIM PlanetQuest will perform narrow-angle astrometry with microarcsecond accuracy using starlight interferometry requiring tens of picometers accuracy in estimating the optical path difference change between observing two stars. One challenge is to accurately model the white-light fringes and calibrate the required model parameters. Previous studies have developed algorithms based on a CCD-pixel-level calibration scheme assuming slowly varying phase-dispersion functions.

Polarization-resolved coherent transient beam combination in optical Kerr media.

We have observed transient, coherent beam combination by degenerate two-wave mixing of frequency-doubled Nd:YAG picosecond laser pulses in carbon disulfide, using a circularly polarized pump wave and a linearly polarized probe beam. The important role of beam polarization is observed, and its part in energy transfer is discussed. A theory that treats polarization effects in transient two-wave mixing is presented, applied to the carbon disulfide experiments, and found to be in excellent agreement with the data.

Fresnel relations for surface polaritons at interfaces.

A normal mode analysis has been employed to calculate the transmission and reflection coefficients for a surface polariton propagating along the interface between a surface-active medium and a dielectric medium and crossing a boundary into a second dielectric medium. The efficiencies of conversion of the surface polariton into transmitted and reflected bulk waves of both s and p polarization are also investigated.