Second-harmonic generation in a sphere

Second-harmonic generation

The goal of this experiment in nonlinear optics is to study the conversion of a (very small) fraction of laser light from its original wavelength of 980 nm (i.e. invisible to the naked eye) to its second-harmonic at a wavelength of 490 nm. This conversion takes place by mild focussing of an intense laser beam in a nonlinear birefringent crystal of BBO (= β BaBO4). You will study the physical pr...

Second harmonic generation in a photonic crystal

Interferometric second harmonic generation microscopy.

We describe a novel second harmonic generation (SHG) microscope that employs heterodyne detection by interfering the epi directed SHG from a sample with SHG from a reference crystal. In addition, the microscope provides complementary reflectance information based on optical coherence microscopy (OCM). The instrument features dual balanced detection to minimize the effect of source fluctuations,...

X-ray second harmonic generation.

We report clear experimental evidence for second harmonic generation at hard x-ray wavelengths. Using a 1.7 Å pumping beam generated by a free electron laser, we observe second harmonic generation in diamond. The generated second harmonic is of order 10 times the background radiation, scales quadratically with pump pulse energy, and is generated over a narrow phase-matching condition. Of import...

Second-Harmonic Rayleigh Scattering from a Sphere of Centrosymmetric Material

We describe the electromagnetic theory of second-harmonic generation from the surface of a sphere that is small compared to the wavelength of light. In a leading-order expansion, the second-harmonic radiation is emitted in nonlocally excited electric dipole and locally excited electric quadrupole modes. We analyze the problem with particular emphasis on experimental aspects, such as the radiati...