Quadratic parametric interactions in organic waveguides

Abstract

This chapter addresses issues related to quadratic parametric interactions in organic waveguides. It attempts to give an overview of the field, especially emphasizing the initial experimental milestones together with the most recent results. This field of research is very challenging in terms of the technology required to turn a good candidate material into a useful optical device demonstration. The keys to this problem are the phase-matching conditions that must be fulfilled by the different interacting waves. These points are illustrated by the bibliography that, still to this day, contains mainly demonstration of the potential of various materials with very few subsequent demonstrations of efficient optical device operation. Nevertheless, this is still a relatively young field of research and there is no doubt that, given time, effort and investment, it will grow and mature along the lines of its successful electro-optic counterpart. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2002.