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Yuen-Ron Shen | |
|---|---|
沈元壤 | |
| Born | |
| Alma mater | National Taiwan University (BS) Stanford University (MS) Harvard University (PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis | Faraday rotation of rare-earth ions in CaF₂ (1963) |
| Doctoral advisor | Nicolaas Bloembergen |
| Doctoral students | Marla Feller |
Yuen-Ron Shen (Chinese:沈元壤;pinyin:Shěn Yuánrǎng) is a Taiwanese physicist. He is a professor emeritus ofphysics at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, known for his work onnon-linear optics.
Shen was born inShanghai and graduated fromNational Taiwan University. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard under physicist and Nobel LaureateNicolaas Bloembergen in 1963, and joined the department of physics at Berkeley in 1964. In the early years, Shen was probably best known for his work onself-focusing andfilament propagation of laser beams in materials.[1] These fundamental studies enabled the creation of ultrafastsupercontinuum light sources. In the 1970s and 1980s, he collaborated withYuan T. Lee on the study of multiphoton dissociation of molecular clusters. The molecular-beam photofragmentation translational spectroscopy that they developed has clarified much of the initial confusion concerning the dynamics of infrared multiphoton dissociation processes.[2] In the 1980s and 1990s, Shen developed various nonlinear optics methods for the study of material surfaces and interfaces.[3] Among these techniques,second-harmonic generation andsum frequency generation spectroscopy are best known and now widely used by scientists from various fields. He has collaborated withGabor Somorjai on the use of the technique ofSum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy to study catalyst surfaces.[4] He is the author of the bookThe Principles of Nonlinear Optics.[5] Shen belongs to the prolificJ. J. Thomson academic lineage tree. Currently,[when?] Shen works in U. C. Berkeley andFudan University in Shanghai.
