Nonlinear optics

Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behavior of light in nonlinear media, that is, media in which the dielectric polarization P responds nonlinearly to the electric field E of the light. The nonlinearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (values of the electric field comparable to interatomic electric fields, typically 10⁸ 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.

Nonlinear optics remained unexplored until the discovery in 1961 of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken et al. at University of Michigan, shortly after the construction of the first laser by Theodore Harold 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:

In these processes, the medium has a linear response to the light, but the properties of the medium are affected by other causes:

Nonlinear effects fall into two qualitatively different categories, parametric and non-parametric effects. A parametric non-linearity is an interaction in which the quantum state of the nonlinear material is not changed by the interaction with the optical field. As a consequence of this, the process is "instantaneous". Energy and momentum are conserved in the optical field, making phase matching important and polarization-dependent.

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