Sur les proprietes optiques lineaires et non lineaires des atomes et des molecules (Französisch)

Some optical nonlinear experiments are discussed permitting one to hetermine optical linear and non linear properties of molecules. Thus, investigation of the optical birefringence induced in a gas by a strong laser beam provides data on the anisotropy of linear optical polarisability of molecules as well as on third order polarisability. It is shown that much fuller data on the optical properties of molecules can be gained from investigations of nonlinear light scattering induced in a gas by a strong optical field.