Characterization of second and third order optical nonlinearities of ZnO sputtered films

Abstract

We measured the second and third order optical nonlinearity of zinc oxide, grown on glass substrates by the ion beam sputtering technique. Second and third harmonic generation measurements were performed by means of the rotational Maker fringes technique for different polarization configurations, thus allowing the determination of all non-zero components of the second order susceptibility at three different fundamental beam wavelengths, i.e., 1064 nm, 1542 nm and 1907 nm. The dispersion of the nonlinear optical coefficients has been evaluated, while the nonlinear optical coefficients were found to range between 0.9 pm/V and 0.16 pm/V for d₃₃, 0.53 pm/V and 0.08 pm/V for |d₁₅|, 0.31 and 0.08 pm/V for |d₃₁|, with increasing wavelength. Finally, one third order susceptibility, χ_ijkl ⁽³⁾, has been determined by third harmonic generation measurements at a fundamental wavelength λ=1907 nm and a value for χ₃₃₃₃ ⁽³⁾ of 185×10^-20 m²/V² has been found.