Question

I have project about nonlinear optics ... Especially about single photon nonlinear optics?? Could you write information about it ??

Answer 1

Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behavior of light in nonlinear media, that is, media in which the dielectric polarization P responds nonlinearly to the electric field E of the light. The nonlinearity is typically observed only at very high light intensities (values of the electric field comparable to interatomic electric fields, typically 10⁸ V/m) such as those provided by lasers. Above the Schwinger limit, the vacuum itself is expected to become nonlinear. In nonlinear optics, the superposition principle no longer holds.

Single-photon sources are light sources that emit light as single particles or photons. They are distinct from coherent light sources (lasers) and thermal light sources (such as incandescent light bulbs and mercury-vapor lamps). The Heisenberg uncertainty principle dictates that a state with an exact number of photons of a single frequency cannot be created. However, Fock states (or number states) can be studied for a system where the electric field amplitude is distributed over a narrow bandwidth. In this context, a single-photon source gives rise to an effectively one-photon number state. Photons from an ideal single-photon source exhibit quantum mechanical characteristics. These characteristics include photon antibunching, so that the time between two successive photons is never less than some minimum value.

Nonlinear optics remained unexplored until the discovery in 1961 of second-harmonic generation by Peter Franken et al. at University of Michigan, shortly after the construction of the first laser by Theodore Harold Maiman.However, some nonlinear effects were discovered before the development of the laser. The theoretical basis for many nonlinear processes were first described in Bloembergen's monograph "Nonlinear Optics"