Second- and third-order optical non-linearity of homogeneous glasses

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Conventional melt-quenched homogeneous glasses are promising materials for photonic applications. In particular, second- and third-harmonic generation has been studied for developing photonic devices, such as photonic switches, memories and modulators. The third-order non-linear susceptibility, X (3), of the glasses depends on the refractive index and is caused by non-linear electronic polarization. Quite large X (3) of nearly 10 −11 esu are seen in high-index chalcogenide glasses. On the other hand, second-order non-linearity, X (2), is observable in strongly electrically polarized SiO 2 or TeO 2-based bulk glasses as well as in GeO 2 or rare earth oxide-containing silica glass fibers.