Research progress on mid-IR nonlinear optical crystals with high laser damage threshold in China

Abstract

Nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals have been playing an increasingly important role in laser science and technology. The NLO crystals used in the middle infrared (mid-IR) region, compared with the NLO crystals in the other wavelength regions, are still not good enough for the application of high-energy laser. The main defect is that their laser damage thresholds (LDT) are low. Chinese scientists have made a lot of important contributions to the UV and visible NLO crystals. In the last decade, they also did a lot of work on the mid-IR NLO materials. The main purpose of these researches is to increase the LDT and simultaneously balance the other properties. This paper presents a brief summary of their research progress in this topic on three types of materials: chalcogenides, oxides, and halides. The emphasis is put on the design strategy and quality control of the crystals.

Keywords

nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals / laser damage threshold (LDT) / mid-IR region / design / crystal growth

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the efforts of the formal and current graduate students in our group and our collaborators, whose names are given in the references of this paper. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Project of China (No. 2010CB630701) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 91022036).

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