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From Lasers to Nonlinear Optics

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Nico Bloembergen

Part of the book series: Springer Biographies ((SPRINGERBIOGS))

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Abstract

He grasped its significance immediately, and I’ve always thought that right there before my eyes he changed the direction of his own research career. Spin resonance was pushed into the background, and he moved strongly into what was to become nonlinear optics and a whole new chapter in his contributions to physics. John Armstrong, Ph.D. student supervised by Bloembergen from 1958 to 1963.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Curie temperature is the temperature above which ferromagnetic materials such as iron lose their permanent magnetic field.

  2. 2.

    A harmonic is a frequency that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. In music, the harmonics are called overtones.

  3. 3.

    A dielectric material is a material which is a poor conductor (insulator), such as glass, quartz, or porcelain, and which can be polarized by an electric field. The dielectric coefficient determines the strength of the interactions between charged particles. It is now called the permittivity and is a parameter that describes how an electric field influences a medium and is influenced by a medium.

  4. 4.

    In mathematics there is an imaginary number i whose square is a negative real number. Indeed, by definition, i2 = −1, or √−1 = i. Imaginary numbers are useful in the practice of mathematics and physics, especially in electricity and wave theory. In general, a complex number consists of a real and an imaginary part, for example, 5 + 3i.

  5. 5.

    The Lorentz force is the force exerted on a charge by an electromagnetic field.

  6. 6.

    The susceptibility of a material or substance describes its response to an applied field. This may refer to a magnetic or electric field. en.wikipedia.org.

  7. 7.

    Raman spectroscopy, like infrared spectroscopy, is an important tool for studying vibrations and rotations in a system. Both techniques are applied in solid-state physics and chemistry. In chemistry, infrared spectroscopy is mainly used for the structural analysis of organic compounds. Raman spectroscopy (named after Chandrasekhara Raman, discoverer of the effect in 1928) is used in inorganic chemistry and in organic chemistry. Raman spectroscopy uses lasers as light source.

  8. 8.

    In a biaxial crystal, a beam of light, which runs along one of the two optical axes, produces a normal beam for polarization components in the direction of the central main refraction axis. For all other polarization components, an extraordinary beam is created, which has a different propagation direction but the same refractive index for each polarization component. Therefore, all polarization directions are equal, and there is no discrete splitting into two beams. Instead, conical refraction of the abnormal beam occurs. This means that, for unpolarized light, one sees a beam cone containing the optical axis in its lateral surface.

  9. 9.

    Dissociation is the process by which a particle disintegrates into two or more smaller parts (nl.wikipedia.org).

  10. 10.

    In the case of a plasma, the gaseous particles are (partly) ionized, that is to say, stripped of electrons.

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  1. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Rob Herber

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Herber, R. (2019). From Lasers to Nonlinear Optics. In: Nico Bloembergen. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25737-8_13

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