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Intrinsic second‐order nonlinearity in chalcogenide glasses containing HgI 2
Author(s) -
Tverjanovich Andrey,
Borisov Evgenii N.,
Kassem Mohammad,
Masselin Pascal,
Fontanari Daniele,
Bychkov Eugene
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.17026
Subject(s) - chalcogenide , second harmonic generation , materials science , chalcogenide glass , photonics , birefringence , isotropy , anisotropy , optoelectronics , nonlinear optics , condensed matter physics , optics , phonon , photonic crystal , laser , physics
Frequency conversion using nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals is widely used in advanced photonic technologies to produce coherent light in the spectral regions where the available laser sources are missing. Isotropic glasses usually do not show second order nonlinear processes like second harmonic or difference frequency generation (SHG, DFG) except for temporarily induced anisotropy under external stimuli. Here, we show that a HgI 2 –Ga 2 S 3 –GeS 2 homogeneous glass exhibits a strong intrinsic SHG response comparable with that of the well‐known NLO single crystal LiNbO 3 . The origin of this extremely rare phenomenon seems to be noncentrosymmetric bent HgI 2 molecules embedded in a sulfide glassy host. Taking into account the unique properties of chalcogenide glasses (wide IR transmission, low phonon density, unlimited ability to be modified changing the appropriate glass properties, fiber drawing and thin layer design), the observed phenomenon opens up the possibility of creating fundamentally new devices for mid‐IR photonics.