Purely refractive transient energy transfer by stimulated Rayleigh-wing scattering

Two-beam coupling is demonstrated in CS2 and other transparent Kerr liquids by use of frequency chirped, picosecond 532-nm-wavelength pulses with several polarization combinations. As the temporal delay between pulses is varied within the coherence time, the first pulse always loses energy while the second pulse gains this energy. The transferred energy at a fixed delay varies linearly with irradiance. The results are consistent with energy transfer from transient refractive gratings that are due to stimulated Rayleigh-wing scattering.