Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation via alignment-to-orientation conversion

Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation is investigated at high light powers where the rotation is significantly modified by ac Stark shifts. These shifts are shown to change the overall sign of rotation for closed F-->F+1 transitions compared to the low light power limit. The effect is demonstrated by measurements in rubidium and density matrix calculations. The results are important for applications of nonlinear optical rotation such as sensitive magnetometry.