Giant second-harmonic generation in ferroelectric NbOI 2

Implementing nonlinear optical components in nanoscale photonic devices is challenged by phase-matching conditions requiring thicknesses in the order of hundreds of wavelengths, and is disadvantaged by the short optical interaction depth of nanometre-scale materials and weak photon–photon interactions. Here we report that ferroelectric NbOI 2 nanosheets exhibit giant second-harmonic generation with conversion efficiencies that are orders of magnitude higher than commonly reported nonlinear crystals. The nonlinear response scales with layer thickness and is strain- and electrical-tunable; a record >0.2