Organic nonlinear optical materials: where we have been and where we are going

Abstract

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.