Nonlinear optical susceptibilities of high‐index glasses

We report results of degenerate four‐wave mixing measurements of nonresonant nonlinearities in a variety of high‐index lead and bismuth containing oxide glasses and the chalcogenide As₂S₃. The third‐order nonlinear susceptibilities of the oxide glasses are found to scale with the heavy metal content. A lead‐bismuth‐gallate glass was identified with a nonresonant χ₃ equal to 42±7×10⁻¹⁴ esu, which is approximately three times larger than that of any glass previously reported.