Thermally induced second harmonic generation in PbO–B2O3 glasses

Second harmonic generation (SHG) was observed in PbO–B2O3 glasses after heat treatment at elevated temperature followed by rapid quenching in water at room temperature (about 25 °C). According to the results of thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) measurement and XRD patterns, no depletion layer or crystals was found in the rapidly quenched glass samples. The thermally induced nonlinear layer is located in the regions extended from the surface and 8 μm into the bulk. The possible mechanism responsible for the SHG is that the bond deformation of glass structure induced by stress gradient breaks the inversion symmetry of glass. The influencing factors of the SH intensity are also discussed.