Fractals: Giant impurity nonlinearities in optics of fractal clusters

A theory of nonlinear optical properties of fractals is developed. Giant enhancement of optical susceptibilities is predicted for impurities bound to a fractal. This enhancement occurs if the exciting radiation frequency lies within the absorption band of the fractal. The giant optical nonlinearities are due to existence of high local electric fields in the sites of impurity locations. Such fields are due to the inhomogeneously broadened character of a fractal spectrum, i.e. partial conservation of individuality of fractal-forming particles (monomers). The field enhancement is proportional to the Q-factor of the resonance of a monomer. The effects of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and phase conjugation (PC) of light waves are enhanced to a much greater degree than generation of higher harmonics. In a general case the susceptibility of a higher-order is enhanced in the maximum way if the process includes ''subtraction'' of photons (at least one of the strong field frequencies enters the susceptibility with the minus sign). Alternatively, enhancement for the highest-order harmonic generation (when all the photons are ''accumulated'') is minimal. The predicted phenomena bear information on spectral properties of both impurity molecules and a fractal. In particular, in the CARS spectra a narrow (with the natural width) resonant structure, which is proper to an isolated monomer of a fractal, is predicted to be observed. (orig.)