Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to review recent developments in engineered optical materials, and in particular nonlinear crystals. This definition can be taken to mean conventional materials that are structurally altered to give new and enhanced optical properties. To distinguish such materials from other structured materials such as doped semiconductors, or countless other examples, we will also limit the definition to mean only those that are noncentrosymmetric. Thus, it includes periodically poled ferroelectrics and polar crystals. The artificially engineered nonlinear opticals materials covered in this chapter were mostly developed for their nonlinear optical properties, but are now seeing applications in other areas of optics such as electro-optics. This review is written for the general laser scientist who wishes to learn more about what can be achieved with these materials and not for those specialists already working in quasi-phase-matched materials.