Abstract

Quadratic nonlinear optical effects that relay on the special properties of materials that exhibit stop-gaps for propagation of light in certain directions have become of great interest as an alternative for the fabrication of efficient optoelectronic or all-optical devices. A particularly interesting structure of this kind is the one formed by monodisperse suspensions of polystyrene microspheres with a nonlinear material adsorbed on the surface of each sphere. These spheres self organize in lattices with a long range of periodic order where the nonlinearity of the material is not linked to a phase matching mechanism [1], giving rise to an enormous flexibility for applications. Since quadratic nonlinear effects are intrinsically very fast, they may be strongly altered by the time response of such crystals. This is the reason why, previous to consider many of the potential nonlinear application of such structures, one should study their linear time response.

© 2001 EPS