Effects of Thickness and Grain Size on Harmonic Generation in Thin AlN Films

High-harmonic generation from solid films is an attractive method for converting infrared laser pulses to ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet wavelengths and for examining the films using the generation process. In this work, AlN thin films grown on a sapphire substrate are studied. Below-band-gap th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Seres, Jozsef, Seres, Enikoe, Céspedes, Eva, Martinez de Olcoz, Leyre, Zabala, Miguel, Schumm, Thorsten
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/373624
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/373624
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:High-harmonic generation
Light–matter interaction
Nonlinear optics
Nanofilms
Crystal symmetries
Descripción
Sumario:High-harmonic generation from solid films is an attractive method for converting infrared laser pulses to ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet wavelengths and for examining the films using the generation process. In this work, AlN thin films grown on a sapphire substrate are studied. Below-band-gap third harmonics and above-band-gap fifth harmonics were generated using a Ti:sapphire oscillator running at 800 nm. A strong enhancement of the fifth-harmonic signal in the forward direction was observed from thicker 39 nm and 100 nm films compared to thinner 8 nm and 17 nm films. For the fifth harmonic generated in the backward direction, and also for the third harmonic in both the forward and backward directions, only a weak dependence of the harmonic signal on the film thickness was measured. Using both X-ray diffraction and dependence of the fifth harmonic on the laser polarization measurements, these behaviors are attributed to the crystallization and the grain size of the films, promising fifth-harmonic generation as a suitable tool to study AlN film properties.