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 an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant, APS Fellowship, and election as corresponding member 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.

1 A preview of the subject of the book
1.1 Symmetry considerations
1.2 Ferroic materials
1.3 Laser optics
1.4 Creating the trinity
1.5 Structure of this book
 
2 Symmetry
2.1 Describing interactions in condensed-matter systems
2.2 Introduction to practical group theory
2.3 Crystals
2.4 Point groups and space groups
2.5 From symmetries to properties
 
3 Ferroic materials
3.1 Ferroic phase transitions
3.2 Ferroic states
3.3 Antiferroic states
3.4 Classification of ferroics
 
4 Nonlinear optics
4.1 Interaction of materials with the electromagnetic radiation field
4.2 Wave equation in nonlinear optics
4.3 Microscopic sources of nonlinear optical effects
4.4 Important nonlinear optical processes
4.5 Nonlinear spectroscopy of electronic states
 

5 Experimental aspects
5.1 Laser sources
5.2 Experimental setups
5.3 Temporal resolution
6 Nonlinear optics on ferroics - an instructive example
6.1 SHG contributions from antiferromagnetic Cr2O3
6.2 SHG spectroscopy
6.3 Topography on antiferromagnetic domains
6.4 Magnetic structure in the spin-flop phase
 
7 The unique degrees of freedom of optical experiments
7.1 Polarisation-dependent spectroscopy
7.2 Spatial resolution - domains
7.3 Temporal resolution - correlation dynamics
 
8 Theoretical aspects
8.1 Microscopic sources of SHG in ferromagnetic metals
8.2 Microscopic sources of SHG in antiferromagnetic insulators
 
9 SHG and multiferroics with magnetoelectric correlations
9.1 Type-I multiferroics - the hexagonal manganites
9.2 Type-I multiferroics - BiFeO3
9.3 Type-I multiferroics with strain-induced ferroelectricity
9.4 Type-II multiferroics - MnWO4
9.5 Type-II multiferroics - TbMn2O5
9.6 Type-II multiferroics - TbMnO3
9.7 Type-II multiferroics with higher-order domain functionalities
 
10 SHG and materials with novel types of primary ferroic order
10.1 Ferrotoroidics
10.2 Ferro-axial order - RbFe(MoO4)2
 
11 SHG and oxide electronics - thin films and heterostructures
11.1 Growth techniques
11.2 Thin epitaxial oxide films with magnetic order
11.3 Thin epitaxial oxide films with ferroelectric order
11.4 Poling dynamics in ferroelectric thin films
11.5 Growth dynamics in oxide electronics by in-situ SHG probing
 
12 Nonlinear optics on ordered states beyond ferroics
12.1 Superconductors
12.2 Metamaterials - photonic crystals
12.3 Topological insulators
 
13 A retrospect of the subject of the book

The book brings together three key fields of physics: symmetry, magnetic or electric long-range ("ferroic") order, and nonlinear laser optics. In the first part, the fundamentals of these three fields are introduced with a focus on the details that are relevant for their combination. The second part discusses how nonlinear optical studies help revealing properties that are inaccessible with "standard characterization" techniques, followed by a systematic discussion of the unique degrees of freedom of nonlinear-optical probing of ferroics. The third part explores material classes of central interest to contemporary condensed-matter physics, including multiferroics with magnetoelectric correlations and oxide-electronic materials, along with application related to the optical properties of ferroic materials. The book concludes with an outlook towards future developments.