Nonlinear optical silica material and nonlinear optical device

Abstract

A nonlinear optical silica material mainly consisting of SiO —GeO to which hydrogen or halogen element X is added. Oxygen bonded to Ge contained in the nonlinear optical silica material is replaced by H or X, and one Ge has two Ge—O bonds and one Ge—H (or Ge—X) bond at Ge· points where nonlinearity is exhibited in the silica material. The Ge—H (or Ge—X) bond does not relate to a crystal network, so that when the polarity is oriented in order to exhibit nonlinearity at Ge·, an electric field to be applied can be lowered, and when a optical semiconductor hybrid element or the like is produced, other portions of the semiconductor elements can be prevented from being broken or degraded in performance. An insulating film can be interposed between the semiconductor substrate and the nonlinear optical silica film to prevent undesired impurities from dispersing into the semiconductor substrate and other elements and preventing a defect from being caused in the crystal of the substrate due to the silica film.