Nanoscale nonlinear optics

Nonlinear optics is one of the major successes of modern optics. Now due to continuing advances in nanofabrication technology, nanoscale, nonlinear optical assemblies or structures are possible in a variety of formats - from guided-wave devices, such as Si wires, to regular in-plane arrays. In this talk, we will review recent advances in nanoscale nonlinear optical phenomena, with particular emphasis on work occurring in the authorspsila laboratories or that of his collaborators. The efficacy of these nonlinear optical devices depends on our ability to control several optical phenomena via the choice of structure and materials. These phenomena include engineering guided-wave dispersion, local enhancement of optical fields, and matching the phase of a fundamental and converted wave over a significant length scales. Finally the vitality of these field can be seen in the fact that nonlinear nanooptical structures can be made in a variety of materials from plasmonically active metals to electrooptically active insulating crystals to low-loss semiconductors with very large optical nonlinear coefficients.