Enhancement of second harmonic generation signal in thermally poled glass ceramic with NaNbO3 nanocrystals

Artem Malakho (1, 2) , Evelyne Fargin (1) , Michel Lahaye (1) , Bogdan Lazoryak (3) , Vladimir Morozov (3) , Gustaaf van Tendeloo (4) , Vincent Rodriguez (5) , Frédéric Adamietz (5)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 Department of Material Science
3 Department of Chemistry
4 EMAT - Electron Microscopy for Materials Science
5 LPCM - Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Moléculaire

Glass ceramic composites were prepared by bulk crystallization of NaNbO3 in sodium niobium borate glasses. A homogeneous bulk crystallization of the NaNbO3 phase takes place during heat treatments that produces visible-near infrared transparent materials with ~30 nm NaNbO3 nanocrystallites. Upon thermal poling, a strong Na+ depleted nonlinear optical thin layer is observed at the anode side that should induce a large internal static electric field. In addition, the chi(2) response of the poled glass ceramic composites increases from 0.2 up to 1.9 pm/V with the rate of crystallization. Two mechanisms may be considered: a pure structural chi(2) process connected with the occurrence of a spontaneous ferroelectric polarization or an increase of the chi(3) response of the nanocrystallites that enhances the electric field induced second harmonic generation process.

Mots clés: Glass-based composites; vitroceramics; Frequency conversion; harmonic generation; including higher-order harmonic generation; Glasses; quartz; Nonlinear optical materials; Polarization and depolarization; Ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity

Domaines: Matériaux; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Artem Malakho, Evelyne Fargin, Michel Lahaye, Bogdan Lazoryak, Vladimir Morozov, et al.. Enhancement of second harmonic generation signal in thermally poled glass ceramic with NaNbO3 nanocrystals. Journal of Applied Physics, 2006, 100 (6), pp.063103. ⟨10.1063/1.2259816⟩. ⟨hal-00111077⟩