Peter Alden Franken coauthored the 1961 observation of optical second-harmonic generation. Intense ruby-laser light passing through quartz produced radiation at twice the incident frequency. A quadratic contribution to nonlinear polarization explains why this is possible: squaring a sinusoidal electric field produces a term at twice its frequency. The experiment made frequency conversion a measured consequence of nonlinear material response.[ref]
Generation of Optical Harmonics by Peter Alden Franken and others. 1961 original report, ruby-laser illumination of quartz and frequency-doubled radiation; quadratic-response interpretation
Portrait of Peter Alden Franken
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