Linear versus nonlinear electro-optic effects in materials

Abstract

Two schemes are proposed to compute the nonlinear electro-optic (EO) tensor for the first time. In the first scheme, we compute the linear EO tensor of the structure under a finite electric field, while we compute the refractive index of the structure under a finite electric field in the second scheme. Such schemes are applied to Pb(Zr,Ti)O${}_3$ and BaTiO${}_3$ ferroelectric oxides. It is found to reproduce a recently observed feature, namely why Pb(Zr${}_{0.52}$Ti${}_{0.48}$)O${}_3$ adopts a mostly linear EO response while BaTiO${}_3$ exhibits a strongly nonlinear conversion between electric and optical properties. Furthermore, the atomistic insight provided by the proposed ab-initio scheme reveals the origin of such qualitatively different responses, in terms of the field-induced behavior of the frequencies of some phonon modes and of some force constants.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Ultrahigh energy storage density in epitaxial AlN/ScN superlattices
• Giant electro-optic and elasto-optic effects in ferroelectric NbOI${}_2$
• Energy storage in lead-free Ba(Zr, Ti)O${}_3$ relaxor ferroelectrics: Large densities and efficiencies and their origins
• Electro-optic properties from ab initio calculations in two-dimensional materials
• Electro-optic effects in some sliding ferroelectrics