Organic nonlinear optical materials: where we have been and where we are going.
Nonlinear optical (NLO) materials can be useful for a variety of applications varying from modulation of optical signals facilitated by the electro-optic effect-the effect whereby the refractive index of a material changes in response to an applied electric field-to microfabrication, sensing, imaging, and cancer therapy facilitated by multiphoton absorption, wherein molecules simultaneously absorb two or more photons of light. This short Focus article is a brief personal perspective of some of the key advances in second-order NLO materials and in multiphoton-absorbing materials, and of how and why these advances have led to renewed interest in organic NLO materials.
Marder
Seth R
SR
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
D015394:Molecular Structure; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D017785:Photons; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*
D011108:Polymers