Abstract

We report measurements of harmonic generation in thin films of BBO and PLZT. Sputtered thin films of BBO exhibit the largest second-harmonic conversion (SHG), with an efficiency as high as 10^-6 for a thickness of only 1 μm. Interdigitated Cr-Au electrodes were deposited for measurement of field-induced SHG on PLZT samples. Second-harmonic generation was measured using a Q-switched, mode-locked picosecond pulse train from a Nd:YAG laser. No damage was observed for intensities above 20 GW/cm². In the case of PLZT films, plots of SHG as a function of electric field, varying from −3 × 10⁵ to 3 × 10⁵ V/cm, exhibit a strong hysteresis, which, to our knowledge, has not been reported. The PLZT (28/0/100) shows less hysteresis than PLZT (7/0/100), indicating that the latter should be better for memory applications and the former should be better for switching applications. Comparing the efficiencies of BBO and PLZT at the highest de field of 3 × 10⁵ V/cm; we observed a conversion for BBO that was 75 times as large as that for PLZT. Because of their high damage thresholds and large nonlinearities, these materials are ideally suited for waveguide applications.

© 1990 Optical Society of America