Answer
Bloembergen pioneered nonlinear optics, a branch of science that explores how light interacts with matter in a nonlinear manner, giving rise to various phenomena and applications. In nonlinear optics, the properties of light, such as its intensity and polarization, influence the material's response, leading to effects like harmonic generation, parametric amplification, and optical solitons. This field has significant applications in ultrafast optics, telecommunications, laser physics, and quantum information processing.