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Speckle decorrelation in fundamental and second-harmonic light scattered from nonlinear disorder

Speckle patterns generated in a disordered medium carry a lot of information despite the apparent complete randomness in the intensity pattern. When the medium possesses $χ^{(2)}$ nonlinearity, the speckle is sensitive to the phase of the incident fundamental light, as well as the light generated within. Here, we examine the speckle decorrelation in the fundamental and second-harmonic transmitted light as a function of varying power in the fundamental beam. At low incident powers, the speckle patterns produced by successive pulses exhibit strong correlations, that decrease with increasing power. The average correlation in the second-harmonic speckle decays faster than in the fundamental speckle. Next, we construct a theoretical model, backed up by numerical computations, to obtain deeper physical insights on the faster decorrelations in the second-harmonic light. Whilst providing excellent qualitative agreement with the experiments, the model sheds important light on the contribution of two effects in the correlations, namely, the generation of second-harmonic light, and the propagation thereof.