Nonlinear optics

Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in nonlinear media, that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (when the electric field of the light is >108 V/m and thus comparable to the atomic electric field of ~1011 V/m) such as those provided by lasers. Above the Schwinger limit, the vacuum itself is expected to become nonlinear. In nonlinear optics, the superposition principle no longer holds. The first nonlinear optical effect to be predicted was two-photon absorption, by Maria Goeppert Mayer for her PhD in 1931, but it remained an unexplored theoretical curiosity until 1961 and the almost simultaneous observation of two-photon absorption at Bell Labs and the discovery of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken et al. at University of Michigan, both shortly after the construction of the first laser by Theodore Maiman. However, some nonlinear effects were discovered before the development of the laser. The theoretical basis for many nonlinear processes were first described in Bloembergen's monograph "Nonlinear Optics". Nonlinear optics explains nonlinear response of properties such as frequency, polarization, phase or path of incident light. These nonlinear interactions give rise to a host of optical phenomena: Second-harmonic generation (SHG), or frequency doubling, generation of light with a doubled frequency (half the wavelength), two photons are destroyed, creating a single photon at two times the frequency. Third-harmonic generation (THG), generation of light with a tripled frequency (one-third the wavelength), three photons are destroyed, creating a single photon at three times the frequency. High-harmonic generation (HHG), generation of light with frequencies much greater than the original (typically 100 to 1000 times greater). Sum-frequency generation (SFG), generation of light with a frequency that is the sum of two other frequencies (SHG is a special case of this).

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