Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
Tunable second-harmonic (SH) transmission measurements were performed on a series of GaN films epitaxially deposited onto (OOOl)-oriented sapphire. Analysis of the nonlinear response showed an increase in the second-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ(2)ijk) when the photon energy of the SH field was tuned above the absorption edge in each respective film. Specifically, the magnitude of the χ(2)zxx element in χ(2)ijk reached a maximum of 0.5 × 10-7 e.s.u. just above the the fundamental bandgap with a dispersion similar to the predicted nonlinear response in wide-bandgap cubic zincblende II-VI semiconductors such as ZnSe.