50-fold SHG enhancement in RbTiOPO4 nonlinear crystals by aggregates of silver nanostructures

The search for efficient blue/UV sources of light is currently an active field of study. In this sense, the use of nonlinear ferroelectric materials of large transparency range can constitute an interesting working line since, due to their quadratic nonlinear susceptibility χ(2), near infrared to visible up-converted radiation via Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) can be obtained. However, the efficiency of these nonlinear phenomena depends on the interaction length, and becomes really weak in the nanoscale. Here, we investigate on the association of ferroelectrics with metallic nanostructures as a way to increase the efficiency of nonlinear processes.