Periodic electric field poling of KTiOPO4 using chemical patterning

We report a technique for periodic poling of KTiOPO4 (KTP). In this approach, we exploit the observation that Rb-exchanged regions of KTP resist electric field poling under conditions that produce domain inversion in unexchanged KTP. Thus, a pattern of Rb-exchanged regions can be transformed into a corresponding pattern of domain inverted regions by application of a uniform electric field, We applied this technique to in situ poling of segmented waveguides and report quasiphase matched second-harmonic generation in these devices. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.