Abstract

The origin of nonlinear optics is usually traced to the demonstration of second harmonic of light by Franken and coworkers in 1961. They used a ruby laser pulse traversing a quartz crystal. Actually the ruby laser itself is an example of nonlinear optics. Maiman achieved stimulated emission, in a negative imaginary part of the susceptibility at the laser frequency ω_L by pumping at ω_P where ω_P stands for the blue and green absorption bands of the ruby.

© 2011 Optical Society of America