We investigate numerically the transmission properties of a thin sinusoidally corrugated metal film bounded by two different dielectrics in the context of the experiment of Gruhlkeet al (1986). We study the dominant contributions from both the propagating and evanescent plane waves. A comparison with the experimental results reveals that the decisive role in cross coupling is played by the evanescent waves emitted by the molecular dipole. We extend our studies to different corrugation amplitudes and widths to show their effect on transmission.

We present exact numerical results for a symmetric layered medium (prism/Ag film/nonlinear dielectric/Ag film/prism) where the middle dielectric slab is assumed to have a saturation-type nonlinearity. We show bistable behaviour in the power dependence of the reflectivity ofp-polarized light under the condition when coupled surface modes are excited in the structure. Moreover, we study the effect of saturation on the bistable behaviour to show that multivalued character is inhibited by saturation effects. The field distributions corresponding to the minimum reflectivity states of the nonlinear structure are also presented.

We exploit the recently reported line narrowed modes [1] for observation of bistability in a nonlinear Fabry-Perot cavity with intracavity index modulation. We show that the frequency response of the structure exhibits larger bistability loops for the line narrowed modes.

Three coupled identical unidirectional B-type ring lasers are considered and the dynamics for varying coupling parameter investigated. For given system parameters like pumping, cavity damping etc. the system is characterized by three distinct types of steady states. The linear stability of these steady states is investigated in detail which are unstable beyond a critical value of the coupling parameter. For a certain range of the coupling parameter chaotic behaviour of the system is demonstrated. The dynamical variables are mapped on to a complex variable reflecting the symmetry of the system. The plot of the real vs. the imaginary part of this complex variable exhibits patterns with threefold symmetry. The largest Lyapunov exponent as well as the power spectra corresponding to the chaotic attractors are also calculated.

We study numerically the linear properties of periodic and quasiperiodic anisotropic layered media. Each anisotropic slab can have arbitrary orientation of optic axis. We apply the general numerical code to recover the known results for solc filters. We propose novel periodic structures where the location and width of the gaps can be controlled easily. We also study the transmission properties of a Fibonacci sequence of anisotropic layers and show the interesting features like self-similarity and scaling.

We consider third harmonic generation in a periodic layered medium with alternate nonlinear media. We show enhanced third harmonic generation when the fundamental frequency matches one of the mode frequencies of the distributed feedback structure. The observed feature is explained in terms of large local field enhancement for the fundamental wave.

We study a doubly resonant optical parametric oscillator where the pump can feed two pairs of signal-idler modes. We assume the presence of gain at the pump frequency. We investigate the various oscillation states of interest, namely, when only the first pair oscillates with the other pair having null amplitudes and vice versa. We demonstrate the exchange of dynamics between the mode pairs when the relevant parameters of the cavity, namely, the phase mismatch factors or the decay rates switch because of fluctuations. The exchange of dynamics is shown to be independent of the nature of dynamics, i.e. independent of whether the motion isn-periodic or chaotic. We also investigate the case where both the pairs can exhibit chaotic dynamics though these states are difficult to realize because of fluctuations.

We study third harmonic generation in layered configuration when the fundamental exhibits bistable response. We consider two geometries, namely, a Fabry-Perot cavity with reflection coatings and a distributed feedback structure with alternate nonlinear layers. In both the cases for suitable choice of frequency, the power response at the fundamental frequency is bistable. We show that bistability of the fundamental leads to a multivalued character of the generated third harmonic in both the forward and backward directions. Moreover, we study frequency response in the case of the Fabry-Perot cavity and show that additional structures arise in the generated third harmonic due to frequency bistability of the fundamental. Our calculations suggest the possibility of an all optical switch at third harmonic frequency controlled by the parameters (like intensity, frequency) of the fundamental.

Phase conjugation in a Kerr nonlinear waveguide is studied with counter-propagating normally incident pumps and a probe beam at an arbitrary angle of incidence. Detailed numerical results for the specular and phase conjugated reflectivities are obtained with full account of pump depletion. For sufficient strengths of the pump a normal mode splitting is demonstrated in both the specular and the phase conjugated reflectivities of the probe wave. The splitting is explained in terms of a simple model under undepleted pump approximation.

Novello et al [1,2] have shown that it is possible to find a pair of canonically conjugate variables (written in terms of gauge-invariant variables) so as to obtain a Hamiltonian that describes the dynamics of a cosmological system. This opens up the way to the usual technique of quantization. Elbaz et al [4] have applied this method to the Hamiltonian formulation of FRW cosmological equations. This note presents a generalization of this approach to a variety of cosmologies. A general Schrödinger wave equation has been derived and exact solutions have been worked out for the stiff matter era for some cosmological models. It is argued that these solutions appear to hint at their possible relevance in the early phase of cosmological evolution.

We study theoretically the transverse spin associated with the eigenmodes of a thinmetal film embedded in a dielectric. We show that the transverse spin has a direct dependence on the nature and strength of the coupling leading to two distinct branches for the long- and short-range modes. We show that the short-range mode exhibits larger extraordinary spin because of its more ‘structured’ nature due to higher decay in propagation. In contrast to some of the earlier studies, calculations are performed retaining the full lossy character of the metal. In the limit of vanishing losses, we present analytical results for the extraordinary spin for both the coupled modes. The results can have direct implications for enhancing the elusive transverse spin exploiting the coupled plasmon structures.