Abstract

Recently there has been considerable interest in surface-emitting second-harmonic (SH) generators fabricated from the Al_xGa_1-xAs system.^1,2) No systematic data are available, however, on the d coefficients of Al_xGa_1-xAs^1,3,4) A major reason for this is that many interesting semiconductors, including Al_xGa_1-xAs, are obtainable only in the form of a thin epitaxial layer. Furthermore, the substrate is often absorptive at SH frequencies. We have developed a new method for characterizing the optical nonlinearity of such thin-film materials on the basis of the method of reflected harmonics.⁵⁾ The new method has been applied to the determination of the coefficient d₁₄ of Al_xGa_1-xAs as a function of x, the AlAs composition of the alloy semiconductor.

© 1992 Optical Society of America