- BBO most striking advantages occur in average power applications. It is an order of magnitude more resistant to thermal fracture than those other nonlinear materials (LiIO3, LiNbO3, KDP).
- BBO has a low-temperature sensitivity for doubling 1064 nm and it can be used in a quadrature configuration.
- BBO is a relatively poor thermal conductor, but this is offset by the wide range of transparency, and in particular by the lack of any intrinsic absorption at 1064, 532, 355 and 266 nm.
- The transparency of BBO in the UV and IR, coupled with its high birefringence, permits phase matching for a variety of optical parametric amplifies generating tunable radiation in the visible and near IR.
- BBO requires high peak powers and high quality beams to be efficient. On the other hand, it has a high resistance to optical damage, and this leads to smaller crystal size.
Transmission Range, [nm]
|
180 - 3000
|
Phase-matchable output range, [nm]
|
189 - 1750
|
NLO Coefficients |
d11=5.8xd36(KDP) d31=0.05xd11 d22<0.05xd11 |
Damage threshold, [GW/cm2] |
1064 nm |
532 nm |
266 nm |
Laser pulse duration: 10 ns |
>5 |
>1 |
|
8 ns |
|
|
>0.12 |
1.3 ns |
>10 |
|
|
250 ps |
|
>7 |
|
Refractive indices: |
no |
ne |
1064 nm |
1.54254 |
1.65510 |
532 nm |
1.55552 |
1.67493 |
355 nm |
1.57757 |
1.70556 |
266 nm |
1.61461 |
1.75707 |
213 nm |
1.67467 |
1.84707 |
|
|
Nd:YAG, Nd:YVO4 and Nd:YLF lasers:
- second, third, fourth and fifth harmonic generations of Nd:YAG lasers;
- intracavity SHG of high power Nd:YAG lasers;
- frequency-double, - triple and -quadruple the high power acousto-optic and electro-optic Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF lasers.
Tunable lasers:
- frequency-doubling, -tripling and -mixing of Dye lasers;
- frequency-doubling and -tripling of ultra-fast lasers, e.g., fs Ti:Sapphire lasers;
- second, third & fourth harmonic generations of Ti:Sapphire and Alexandrite lasers;
- frequency-doubling of Argon ion, Cu-vapor and Ruby lasers.
Optical parametric amplifiers (OPA) and optical parametric oscillators (OPO).
|