In the experiments, the team used extremely short and intense laser pulses. The crystal transformed the incoming light into multiples of its original color — similar to a musical instrument that produces many overtones in addition to the basic note. The researchers detected these optical “overtones” up to the 17th order.
The findings open up new possibilities for understanding organic materials, which play a key role in technologies such as flexible displays, solar cells, sensors, and organic electronics. The study shows that their internal structures and interactions can be explored with entirely new optical methods.
All details can be found in the new publication in Nature Communications:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65975-7