2-DIMENSIONAL OBSERVATION OF THE MAKER FRINGE AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE POLING STATE EVALUATION OF FERROELECTRIC DOMAINS

Two-dimensional images of the Maker fringe have been successfully obta ined with a second-harmonic generation microscope that we recently con structed. Compared with conventional Maker fringe methods, our experim ental technique offers several advantages of direct and rapid calculat ion of coherence lengths of optical nonlinear crystals. In addition, o wing to the sensitivity of second-harmonic waves to orientational inho mogeneities, two-dimensional images built by second-harmonic waves mak e it possible to observe and evaluate the poling state of ferroelectri c single domains or inhomogeneities in a specimen. (C) 1997 Optical So ciety of America.