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Nitrogen-Vacancy Suppression of the Optical Kerr Effect in Diamond

An experimental study of how nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers change the third-order optical nonlinearity of diamond in the infrared. Students learn that the nonlinear refractive index of diamond is strongly anisotropic with four-fold rotational symmetry about the (001) axis, and that increasing NV concentration reduces its amplitude - explained by treating the NV center as a two-level system driven by a strong laser field red-detuned from resonance, which contributes a negative third-order susceptibility.