Nicolass Bloembergen shared half the 1981 Nobel Prize in physics with Arthur L. Schawlow "for their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy.” The other half of the prize was won by Kai M. Siegbahn "for his contribution to the development of high-resolution electron spectroscopy." Nicolaas Bloembergen began research in nuclear magnetic resonance and helped design the first nuclear magnetic resonance equipment, explored microwave spectroscopy, and proposed a model for solid-state MASER. After the realization of the LASER, he pioneered much of non-linear optics, and contributed to new methods in spectroscopy. Nonlinear optics is the study of materials that interact with electromagnetic radiation in a non-linear way.
