Optical Functions of Glass Materials Induced by Thermal Poling/Ion Implantation Technique

Abstract

Thermal poling is a process that a high voltage, or a strong electric field, is applied to a dielectric material at an elevated temperature. For glass materials, this technique has been mainly utilized to induce optical second-order nonlinearity in glass, which is a prototype of an optically isotropic material and has been believed not to show the second-order nonlinearity because of its macroscopic structure possessing inversion symmetry. On the other hand, ion implantation can be achieved during the thermal poling of glass if a dielectric material bearing ions with high mobility such as alkali metal ions is inserted in between an electrode and the glass material to be poled. In such a situation, the mobile ions can move into the glass from the dielectric material, and the glass structure is modified by the incoming ions, leading to a change in properties of the glass. In this review article, we describe about optical functions induced in tellurite glasses by the thermal poling/ion implantation technique. The optical functions are second-harmonic generation and surface plasmon enhanced birefringence, both of which are attained by the thermal poling/ion implantation process.