Spectroscopy of one-dimensionally inhomogeneous media with quadratic nonlinearity

We present a brief review of the results of fifty years of development efforts in spectroscopy of one-dimensionally inhomogeneous media with quadratic nonlinearity. The recent original results obtained by the authors show the fundamental possibility of determining, from experimental data, the coordinate dependences of complex quadratic susceptibility tensor components of a onedimensionally inhomogeneous (along the z axis) medium with an arbitrary frequency dispersion, if the linear dielectric properties of the medium also vary along the z axis and are described by a diagonal tensor of the linear dielectric constant. It is assumed that the medium in question has the form of a plane-parallel plate, whose surfaces are perpendicular to the direction of the inhomogeneity. Using the example of several components of the tensors X⁽²⁾(z, ω₁ ± ω₂; ω₁, ± ω₂), we describe two methods for finding their spatial profiles, which differ in the interaction geometry of plane monochromatic fundamental waves with frequencies ω₁ and ω₂. The both methods are based on assessing the intensity of the waves propagating from the plate at the sum or difference frequency and require measurements over a range of angles of incidence of the fundamental waves. Such measurements include two series of additional estimates of the intensities of the waves generated under special conditions by using the test and additional reference plates, which eliminates the need for complicated phase measurements of the complex amplitudes of the waves at the sum (difference) frequency.