Covering the fruitful combination of nonlinear optics and ferroic materials!

The use of nonlinear optics for the study of ferroics, that is, magnetically, electrically or otherwise spontaneously ordered and switchable materials has witnessed a remarkable development since its inception with the invention of the laser in the 1960s.

This book on Nonlinear Optics on Ferroic Materials reviews and advances an overarching concept of ferroic order and its exploration by nonlinear-optical methods. In doing so, it brings together three fields of physics: symmetry, ferroic order, and nonlinear laser spectroscopy. It begins by introducing the fundamentals for each of these fields. The book then discusses how nonlinear optical studies help to reveal properties of ferroic materials that are often inaccessible with other methods. In this, consequent use is made of the unique degrees of freedom inherent to optical experiments. An excursion into the theoretical foundations of nonlinear optical processes in ferroics rounds off the discussion.

The final part of the book explores classes of ferroic materials of primary interest. In particular, this covers multiferroics with magnetoelectric correlations and oxide-electronic heterostructures. An outlook towards materials exhibiting novel forms of ferroic states or correlated arrangements beyond ferroic order and the study these systems by nonlinear optics concludes the work.

The book is aimed equally at experienced scientists and young researchers at the interface between condensed-matter physics and optics and with a taste for bold, innovative ideas.

Manfred Fiebig received his doctorate from the University of Dortmund, Germany, in 1996. From 1997 to 1999, he was a JST Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He then headed a Junior Research Group at the University of Dortmund until his habilitation in 2001. From 2002 to 2006, he worked as a DFG Heisenberg Fellow at the Max Born Institute in Berlin. In 2006, he was appointed Professor of Experimental Solid-State Physics at the University of Bonn, Germany; a position he held until 2011. Since 2011, Manfred Fiebig has been Professor for Multifunctional Ferroic Materials in the Department of Materials at ETH Zurich where he heads a group of people uniting the cultural diversity of, at present, 15 nations. His honours include election an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant, APS Fellowship and membership in the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz. Most recently, Manfred Fiebig was awarded with the APS Frank Isakson Prize and the Stern-Gerlach Medal of the German Physical Society, their highest distinction in Experimental Physics.