We show that for continuous wave second-harmonic generation using quasiphase matching in periodically segmented waveguides, thermal loading caused by the fundamental and the generated beams degrades the quasiphase matching condition which corrupts the spectral quality of the second-harmonic field. We also show that a carefully designed external temperature gradient leads to an enhancement of the conversion efficiency and control of the spectral line shape of the output field. Compared to earlier work, our simple scheme yields an enhancement of the second-harmonic conversion efficiency by a factor of 2–4 depending on the input fundamental power. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.