The branch of optics that deals with light so intense that a nonlinear relationship holds between the electromagnetic field of the light beams and the response of the propagating medium.
Origin
1960s; earliest use found in Science.
Definition of non-linear optics in US English:
non-linear optics
noun
The branch of optics that deals with light so intense that a nonlinear relationship holds between the electromagnetic field of the light beams and the response of the propagating medium.