Impact of longitudinal fields on second harmonic generation in lithium niobate nanopillars
engineering nonlinear optical response with Focused Ion Beam (FIB)
An optimized focused ion beam process is used to fabricate micrometer-long LiNbO3 nanopillars with diameters varying between 150 and 325 nm. Polarimetric mappings of second harmonic generation from a wavelength of 850 nm demonstrate the ability to modify the polarization features of the nonlinear response through a fine adjustment of the pillar size. The effect is ascribed to the non-negligible contribution of the longitudinal fields associated with sub-wavelength light confinement in the LiNbO3 nanopillars. The results also highlight the importance of a fine control over the nanopillar size in order to effectively engineer their nonlinear response.
