Vector method for studying the second-harmonic-generation light derived from complex periodic ferroelectric domains

In this Letter, in order to overcome the disadvantages of controlling the second-harmonic-generation (SHG) light derived from the traditional one-dimensional (1D) periodic ferroelectric domains we propose a kind of so-called complex periodic ferroelectric structure (CPFS), which unit cell is composed of even layers of positive and negative domains arranged alternatively following aperiodic sequence. It is found that comparing with the traditional periodic structure, CPFS cannot offer more reciprocal vector compensations for the mismatching phase, but CPFS may provide larger effective nonlinear coefficients (ENCs) in high-order quasi-phase-matching (QPM) and possesses advantages of the amplitude modulation for SHG peaks. In this Letter we study CPFS by use of vector method (VM), where the contribution to ENC for each domain or each unit cell will be treated as a vector and the QPM condition for CPFS and the modulation effect of aperiodic unit cells have been obtained. Without any Fourier transformation VM treats the grating function in real space and will be very convenient and intuitive. Both VM and CPFS would possess potential applications in the field of SHG investigations.