Second-harmonic generation in semiconductors: devices and diagnostics

This presentation will review recent efforts to understand the second-order nonlinearity in bulk semiconductors and quantum wells, and at semiconductor interfaces. Optical second-harmonic generation has found increasing application in semiconductor science and technology in 1980s/1990s. One of the reasons for this is the development of quasi-phase matching techniques, which have revolutionized the field of nonlinear optical frequency mixing. Periodically modulating the optical properties of a material, for example along a waveguide, results in a quasiphase matched (QPM) geometry with SH generation efficiencies approaching that of conventional phase matched geometries.