Nicolaas Bloembergen helped develop the theory of nonlinear optics and its use in spectroscopy. When the electric polarization is not simply proportional to the applied electric field, different frequencies can mix and new optical components can appear. His Nobel lecture connects the intense fields supplied by lasers with these nonlinear responses and the spectroscopic information they reveal. This makes the laser both a source of light and a tool for deliberately changing the response of the material being measured.[ref]
Nonlinear Optics and Spectroscopy by Nicolaas Bloembergen. 1981 authored lecture, laser intensity and nonlinear optical response
Portrait of Nicolaas Bloembergen
. Rob Herber; attribution requested on Commons: Pinoccio at Dutch Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
Nicolaas Bloembergen was a Dutch physicist known for his work in the field of laser science and spectroscopy. Born on March 11, 1920, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1981, along with Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Kai M. Ziegler, for their contributions to the development of laser technology. Bloembergen's research significantly advanced the understanding of light-matter interactions and the development of various spectroscopic techniques.