Near-field second harmonic imaging of lead zirconate titanate piezoceramic

A technique to characterize the local nonlinearity of lead zirconate titanate piezoceramic (PZT) has been developed. Near-field optical microscopy has been used to image variations in local optical second harmonic generation from the PZT surface. Individual crystalline grains and grain boundaries are the main features visible in the images. The technique allows us to determine the local poling direction of individual submicrometer size crystalline grains of ceramic by near-field second harmonic imaging at different angles of incidence and polarization states of fundamental excitation light.