Abstract

Second-harmonic generation (SHG) in waveguides has been important for years as a method of obtaining a compact, coherent blue light source. Recently, this field has received new attention due to the possibility of using cascaded χ⁽²⁾-effects for all-optical switching, spatial solitons etc. Because some polymers have exhibited large second order non-linearities after poling, there has been a growing interest in using these materials for waveguide SHG. Besides high d-coefficients, polymers offer easy processing and are a cheap alternative to inorganic crystals. In this paper we report the fabrication of periodically poled polymer channel waveguides, the deformation of the waveguide under the electrode fingers during poling, and the demonstration of SHG by quasi-phase-matching in a channel waveguide made of 4-dimethylamino-4'-nitrostilbene (DANS) side-chain polymer.

© 1995 Optical Society of America