Nicolaas Bloembergen, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1981), wrote Nonlinear Optics in 1964, when the field of nonlinear optics was only three years old. The available literature has since grown by at least three orders of magnitude.
The vitality of Nonlinear Optics is evident from the still-growing number of scientists and engineers engaged in the study of new nonlinear phenomena and in the development of new nonlinear devices in the field of opto-electronics. This monograph should be helpful in providing a historical introduction and a general background of basic ideas both for experts specializing in this discipline and for scientists and students who wish to become acquainted with it.
This is the fourth reprint and includes new references to the recent literature.
Sample Chapter(s)
Chapter 1: Classical Introduction (766 KB)
Contents:
- Classical Introduction
- Quantum Theory of Nonlinear Susceptibilities
- Maxwell's Equations in Nonlinear Media
- Wave Propagation in Nonlinear Media
- Experimental Results
- Conclusion
Readership: Students and researchers in nonlinear optics and condensed matter physics.
“… The field of Nonlinear Optics today has grown into a vast enterprise with a considerable potential for technological applications. New nonlinear optical materials and devices are in various stages of development. Purely optical information processing looms on the horizon. At the same time, basic research in nonlinear optical phenomena retains its vitality. Topics of current interest include, among others, optical solitons, femto-second time-resolved spectroscopy and squeezed quantum states … An epiologue provides some corrective notes as well as a list of more up-to-date textbooks.”
Preface to Nonlinear Optics (4th Edition)
Nicolaas Bloembergen was born in 1920 in the Netherlands. He obtained the equivalent of a bachelor's and master's degree in physics at the University of Utrecht. He carried out research for the PhD degree under the guidance of Professor E M Purcell at Harvard University in 1946 and 1947, later becoming a postdoctoral research fellow with Professor C J Gorter at the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory at the University of Leiden, where he obtained his PhD in 1948. From 1949 to 1951 he was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University, where he has held a series of tenured faculty positions since 1951. He is now Gerhard Gade University Professor Emeritus.
In 1981, Professor Bloembergen received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He was also the recipient of the Lorentz medal of the Royal Dutch Academy in 1978. The President of the United States of America has also awarded him the national Medal of Science. His other awards include the Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society, the Ballantine Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Ives Medal of the Optical Society of America, and the Medal of Honor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Professor Bloembergen is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the American Philosophical Society. He is a foreign associate of academics in the Netherlands, France, Germany, India, and Norway.
