Nonlinear optics in daily life

An overview is presented of the impact of NLO on today's daily life. While NLO researchers have promised many applications, only a few have changed our lives so far. This paper categorizes applications of NLO into three areas: improving lasers, interaction with materials, and information technology. NLO provides: coherent light of different wavelengths; multi-photon absorption for plasma-materials interaction; advanced spectroscopy and materials analysis; and applications to communications and sensors. Applications in information processing and storage seem less mature.