An exact, closed-form solution is presented for the propagation characteristics of an intense, arbitrarily polarized optical beam in an isotropic medium which is subjected to a dc electric field. The related phenomena of dc-electric-field-induced optical rectification and second-harmonic generation are examined as well as the propagation characteristics of a weak beam in an isotropic medium in the presence of both the intense optical and dc fields. One fundamental and noteworthy aspect of the results presented here is that both the formalism and the resulting solutions for these third-order nonlinear optical phenomena are given explicitly and entirely in terms of the set of real, observable Stokes parameters rather than in terms of the electric field amplitudes and phases.

• Received 15 August 1983

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.29.1944