Phase-matched harmonic generation in lithium triborate (LBO)

The authors present refractive index, thermo-optic, phase-matching angle, nonlinear coefficient, absorption, and scattering data on lithium triborate (LBO) crystals. They briefly discuss the material quality of the crystals, including the results of calorimetric absorption measurements in the infrared and ultraviolet. They present a new set of refractive index values with better than fourth decimal place precision, as well as measurements of the thermo-optic parameters. The nonlinear coefficients and other frequency conversion parameters of LBO were investigated by studying the phase-matched generation of Nd:YAG harmonics. These results are summarized. The authors discuss angular and thermal bandwidths for phase matching. Finally, they compare the efficiency of LBO with that of several other frequency conversion crystals for a common commercial application-the generation of Nd:YAG harmonics.>