Background-free electric field-induced second harmonic generation with interdigitated combs of electrodes

The electric field-induced second harmonic (EFISH) generation is a powerful tool for the investigation of optical nonlinearities, material polarization, internal electric fields, and other properties of photonic materials and devices. A conventional generation of the second harmonics (SH) in materials with the disturbed centrosymmetry causes a field-independent background to EFISH and limits its applications. Here we suggest and analyze the application of the interdigitated combs of electrodes for EFISH generation in thin films. Interdigitated electrodes form an optical transmission amplitude diffraction grating. Phase matching of the EFISH radiation creates unusual diffraction fringes with the zero intensity along the zeroth order direction and with the diffraction angles different from diffraction angles of incident fundamental laser radiation and its second harmonics. It enables a simple geometrical separation of the EFISH signal from a conventional SH background, simplifies the sample preparation, and provides additional experimental possibilities. We demonstrate applicability of the suggested technique for characterization of submicrometer thickness organic films of transparent and resonantly interacting polymers and of their mixtures.