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Abstract
We review a general fomalism for the calculation of both linear and nonlinear optical effects in ferroelectric materials from the Landau free energy combined with a Landau-Khalatnikov equation of motion. The first application is to the calculation of conventional nonlinear-optical tensors in the far infrared spectral region. We then show how the formalism can be extended to give a general framework for the calculation of linear and nonlinear optical effects at surfaces and in thin films. It is shown that measurements of linear reflectivity of a ferroelectric film should serve as a sensitive probe of the behaviour of the order parameter near the surfaces of the film.