Tunable ultraviolet radiation by second-harmonic generation in periodically poled lithium tantalate

We describe electric-field poling of fine-pitch ferroelectric domain gratings in lithium tantalate and characterization of nonlinear-optical properties by single-pass quasi-phase-matched second-harmonic generation (QPM SHG). With a 7.5-mu m-period grating, the observed effective nonlinear coefficient for first-order QPM SHG of 532-nm radiation is 9 pm/V, whereas for a grating with a 2.625-mu m period, 2.6 pm/V was observed for second-order QPM SHG of 325-nm radiation. These values are 100% and 55% of the theoretically expected values, respectively. We derive a temperature-dependent Sellmeier equation for lithium tantalate that is valid deeper into the UV than currently available results, based on temperature-tuning experiments at different QPM grating periods combined with refractive-index data in the literature. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.