Z-scan and spatial self-phase modulation of a Gaussian beam in a thin nonlocal nonlinear media

Considering that the nonlinear photoinduced phase shift to a Gaussian beam in a thin sample of nonlocal nonlinear media can be modeled as a Gaussian function to some real power the far-field can be calculated using the Fraunhofer integral. In this paper we calculate numerically this integral to obtain the on-axis intensity in a Z -scan experiment or the intensity pattern in a self-phase modulation experiment. Experimental results of samples under cw illumination are fitted using the model with a good correspondence between experimental and numerical results. The model presented is adequate to describe samples with any magnitude of the maximum nonlinear photoinduced phase shift of purely refractive local or nonlocal nonlinear thin media.