Nonlinear Optics of Organic and Polymer Materials

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Abstract
Over the past decade the study of nonlinear optical processes in organic and polymer systems has enjoyed rapid and sustained growth. One indication of that growth is the increase in the number of articles published inrefereed society journals. The four‐year period 1980–83 saw the publication of 124 such articles. For the four‐year period a decade later the production of articles in the field had grown to 736—nearly a sixfold increase. In part, the rapid growth of the field can be attributed to the technological promise and interesting physical properties of these materials. Because of their large optical nonlinearities and mechanical, chemical, thermal and optical stability, organic nonlinear optical materials are the leading practical materials for fabricating optoelectronic devices. They also have proven to be excellent subjects in which to study many‐body electron correlation effects and exotic states like polarons, excitons and even coherently propagating multiexciton strings.