BBO crystals
Main features
- Broad transparency range from 188 nm to 5.2 μm (reasonable transparency @3 μm - 5,2 μm for few tens μm thick crystals)
- Broad phase-matchable range for various second order nonlinear interactions over almost entire transparency range
- Wide thermal acceptance bandwidth
- Highest nonlinearity of all UV nonlinear crystals
- High laser induced damage threshold
- Ultrathin crystals available for ultrafast (<10 fs) applications
- Custom crystals available upon request
Application examples
- Harmonic generation (up to fifth) of pulsed Nd-doped laser crystals
based lasers - Frequency doubling, tripling of pulsed Ti:Sapphire, Yb-doped, dye lasers
- Widely tunable type I and II optical parametric oscillators
- Characterization of ultrashort laser pulses by FROG, XFROG, SPIDER,
dispersion scan, chirp scan methods
- Description
- Properties
- Specifications
- References
BBO crystals possess transparency range from 188 nm to 5,2 μm, which includes reasonable transparency from 3 μm - 5,2 μm for few tens μm thick crystals, while their phase-matchable range spans almost over entire transparency range. Combined with other magnificent properties of BBO, it is favorable to use them for numerous nonlinear parametric applications, e.g. harmonic generation of pulsed Nd-doped crystals based lasers and frequency doubling, tripling of Ti:Sapphire lasers, widely tunable type I and II OPOs. It is worth to mention that BBO crystal has highest nonlinearity among UV nonlinear crystals.
4Lasers provide guidance and theoretical calculations for particular BBO application. Contact us and we will help you to configure your crystal.
| Physical and optical properties | |
|---|---|
| Chemical formula | β-BaB2O4 |
| Crystal structure | Rhomboedral, 3m |
| Lattice parameters | a=12,532 Å, c=12,717 Å |
| Optical symmetry | Negative uniaxial (no > ne) |
| Density | 3,85 g/cm3 |
| Mohs hardness | 4 - 4,5 |
| Transparency range | 188 nm - 5,2 µm, reasonable from 3 µm to 5,2 µm for thin crystals (few ten of µm) |
| Dispersion equations @188 nm - 5.2 µm (λ in µm) | no2 = 1 + 0,90291 λ2/(λ2 - 0,003926) + 0,83155 λ2/(λ2 - 0,018786) + 0,76536 λ2/(λ2 - 60,01); ne2 = 1 + 1,151075 λ2/(λ2 - 0,007142) + 0,21803 λ2/(λ2 - 0,02259) + 0,656 λ2/(λ2 - 263) |
| Refractive indices @1064 nm | no = 1,6551; ne = 1,5426 |
| BBO crystals | |
|---|---|
| Orientation accuracy | <30 arcmin |
| Clear aperture | >90% |
| Face dimensions tolerance | +0/-0,1 mm |
| Parallelism error | <20 arcsec |
| Perpendicularity error | <5 arcmin |
| Protective chamfers | <0,1 mm at 45° |
| Surface quality | 10-5 S-D |
| Wavefront distortion | <λ/[email protected],8 nm |
| Coatings | Low dispersion protective coatings or antireflective coatings on both sides |
| Laser induced damage threshold | >500 MW/cm2@1064 nm, 10 ns |
| Mount | Mounted in ⌀25,4 mm black anodized aluminum mount |
[1] G. Tamošauskas, G. Beresnevičius, D. Gadonas, and A. Dubietis, “Transmittance and phase matching of BBO crystal in the 3−5 μm range and its application for the characterization of mid-infrared laser pulses,” Opt. Mater. Express, vol. 8, no. 6, p. 1410, 2018.
