It is now well established that a unique feature of coherent optical beams is their ability to transmit, process, store and interconnect in parallel a large number of high bandwidth information channels. However, although these techniques possess great potential their development depends critically on the nonlinear optical effects used and on the availability of nonlinear optical materials that work at high speed and low incident optical power. At present, these requirements are stimulating a great deal of research in materials science and are challenging existing technologies, in particular high speed electronics. This volume devoted to nonlinear optical effects and materials presents a detailed account of selected topics in inorganic and organic materials re search. The status of organic crystals and polymers for nonlinear optics is critically compared with their inorganic counterparts. The preparation tech niques and a description of the methods used to characterize the nonlinear optical effects relevant for device applications are dealt with, as well as a theoretical description of the nonlinear optical, electro-optical and photore fractive effects observed. The main concepts and potential applications are outlined and developed in the various chapters of this book. This collection of articles provides a broad survey of selected research topics in organic and in organic nonlinear optics.

Up-to-date review of nonlinear materials

Provides a rich source of information for physicists and engineers in the field

The most comprehensive book available on the issue

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Zusammenfassung
From the reviews: "Indeed, this book also provides an excellent overview of the subject and is an excellent introduction for the non-specialist....will prove useful for many years and that will also survive extensive use during these years. As such it is highly recommended to the reader who wants an in-depth introduction to nonlinear optical materials"
Gary J.Long, Fernande Grandjean, Physicalia, 2001,36,2

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- References.- 2 Third-Order Nonlinear Optics in Polar Materials.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.1.1 Motivation.- 2.1.2 Basic Concept of Cascading.- 2.1.3 Definition of Nonlinear Optical Coefficients.- 2.1.4 Materials Requirements for All-Optical Signal Processing.- 2.2 Optical Nonlinearities.- 2.2.1 Organic Nonlinear Optical Materials.- 2.2.2 Macroscopic Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Effects.- 2.2.3 Macroscopic Third-Order Nonlinear Optical Effects.- 2.3 Cascaded Second-Order Nonlinearities X(2) : X(2).- 2.3.1 Second-Harmonic Generation and Sum-Frequency Generation.- 2.3.2 Cascading Through the Reaction Field in Centrosymmetric Media.- 2.3.3 Cascading Through the Local Field.- 2.3.4 Second-Harmonic Generation and Difference Frequency Mixing.- 2.3.5 Optical Rectification and Linear Electro-Optic Effect.- 2.3.6 Limits of the Cascaded Response in Molecular Crystals.- 2.4 Nonlinear Optical Molecules.- 2.4.1 Third-Harmonic Generation.- 2.4.2 Electric Field-Induced Second-Harmonic Generation.- 2.5 Nonlinear Optical Single Crystals.- 2.5.1 Third-Harmonic Generation.- 2.5.2 z-Scan Technique.- 2.6 Discussion and Conclusion.- 2.6.1 Second- and Third-Harmonic Generation.- 2.6.2 Cascaded X(2) : X(2) for the Optical Kerr Effect.- 2.6.3 Final Remarks and Outlook.- A.l Definition of Nonlinear Optical Susceptibilities.- A.2 Conversion Between SI, cgs and Atomic Units.- A.3 Theoretical Description of Third-Harmonic Generation.- A.4 Theoretical Description of Electric Field-Induced Second-Harmonic Generation.- A.5 Theoretical Description of the z-Scan Technique.- A.6 List of Symbols and Abbreviations.- References.- 3 Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Organic Materials: Recent Developments.- 3.1 Nonlinear Optical and Electro-Optic Effects.- 3.1.1 Sum Frequency Generation and Optical Frequency Doubling.- 3.1.2 Difference Frequency Generation and Optic Parametric Oscillation/Generation.- 3.1.3 Conservation of Energy and Momentum.- 3.1.4 Linear Electro-Optic Effect.- 3.2 Material Considerations.- 3.2.1 Dispersion of the Nonlinear and Electro-Optic Coefficients.- 3.2.2 Symmetry Considerations for Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Materials.- 3.3 Organic Nonlinear Optical Molecules.- 3.3.1 Measurement Techniques.- 3.3.2 Discussion of Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Molecules.- 3.4 Nonlinear and Electro-Optic Single Crystals and Polymers.- 3.4.1 Measurement Techniques.- 3.4.2 Single Crystals.- 3.4.3 Poled Polymers.- 3.4.4 Inorganic Dielectrics and Semiconductors.- 3.5 Applications.- 3.5.1 Optical Frequency Conversion.- 3.5.2 Short-Pulse Laser Applications.- 3.5.3 Polymer-Based Electro-Optic Modulators.- 3.5.4 Electro-Optic Sampling.- 3.5.5 THz Generation.- 3.5.6 Thermo-Optic Switches.- 3.6 Stability of Nonlinear and Electro-Optic Materials and Their Properties.- 3.6.1 Optical Damage Threshold.- 3.6.2 Orientational Relaxation of Poled Polymers.- 3.7 Concluding Remarks and Outlook.- References.- 4 The Photorefractive Effect in Inorganic and Organic Materials.- 4.1 Photoinduced Changes of Optical Properties and Photorefractive Effect.- 4.2 Charge Transport in Inorganic and Organic Materials.- 4.2.1 Band Transport.- 4.2.2 Hopping Transport.- 4.2.3 Geminate Recombination.- 4.3 Model Descriptions of the Photorefractive Effect and Photoassisted Orientational Grätings.- 4.3.1 Band Model of the Photorefractive Effect.- 4.3.2 Model for the Space Charge Fields in Polymers.- 4.4 Electro-Optic Response.- 4.4.1 Pockels Effect.- 4.4.2 Lattice Distortions and Electro-Optics.- 4.4.3 Molecular Reorientation.- 4.5 Measurement Techniques.- 4.5.1 Two-Wave Mixing.- 4.5.2 Bragg Diffraction.- 4.6 Applications.- 4.6.1 Thick Volume Grätings.- 4.6.2 Thin Grätings.- 4.6.3 Materials Requirements and Figures of Merit.- 4.7 Materials.- 4.7.1 Photorefractive Materials.- 4.7.2 Polymers and Liquid Crystals Showing Photorefractive and Photoassisted Orientational Grätings.- 4.7.3 Wavelength Sensitivity.- 4.7.4 Comparison of Materials Properties.- 4.8 Conclusions.- References.- 5 Photorefractive Memories for Optical Processing.- 5.1 Volumetrie Optical Data Storage.- 5.1.1 Light Diffraction Volume Grätings.- 5.1.2 Hologram Multiplexing Methods.- 5.1.3 System Architecture.- 5.1.4 Storage Capacity of Volume Media.- 5.2 Optical Pattern Recognition.- 5.2.1 Optical Correlators.- 5.2.2 Optical Pattern Recognition Using Volume Holograms.- 5.3 Holographie Associative Memories.- 5.3.1 Linear Holographie Associative Memories.- 5.3.2 Nonlinear Holographie Associative Memories.- 5.3.3 Ring Resonator Associative Memories.- 5.4 Photorefractive Materials as Volume Storage Media.- 5.4.1 Recording Schemes.- 5.4.2 Storage Capacity of Photorefractive Holographie Media.- 5.4.3 Hologram Fixing and Nondestructive Readout.- 5.4.4 Coherent Erasure and Updating of Holograms.- 5.5 Optical Correlators Using Photorefractive Crystals.- 5.6 All-optical Nonlinear Associative Memories.- 5.6.1 Thin Storage Media Implementations.- 5.6.2 Volume Storage in Associative Memories.- 5.7 Summary.- References.- 6 Second-Harmonic Generation in Ferroelectric Waveguides.- 6.1 Second-Harmonic Generation in Waveguides: Basic Concepts.- 6.1.1 Planar and Channel Waveguides.- 6.1.2 Figures of Merit for Second-Harmonic Generation in Waveguides.- 6.1.3 Phase Matching Schemes for Second-Harmonic Generation in Waveguides.- 6.2 Ferroelectric Waveguides: Overview.- 6.3 Lithium Niobate Waveguides.- 6.3.1 Titanium-Indiffused Lithium Niobate Waveguides.- 6.3.2 Proton-Exchanged Lithium Niobate Waveguides.- 6.3.3 Domain Inversion and Quasi-Phase-Matching in Lithium Niobate.- 6.3.4 Optical Damage in Lithium Niobate Waveguides.- 6.3.5 Second-Harmonic Generation in Lithium Niobate Waveguides ..- 6.4 Lithium Tantalate Waveguides.- 6.4.1 Fabrication and Properties of Proton-Exchanged Lithium Tantalate Waveguides.- 6.4.2 Domain Inversion and Quasi-Phase-Matching in Lithium Tantalate.- 6.4.3 Second-Har…