Del Mar Photonics - Newsletter December 2010 - Newsletter April 2011

Customer inquiry:

I am interested in purchasing a 10mmx10mm alpha BBO crystal for ultrafast application as a birefringent crystal. Can you advise on what you have available?

Alpha BBO Crystals - request a quote

The most widely used birefringent crystal was the natural calcite crystal. However the calcite crystal was seriously limited because of its optical inhomogeneity, small size, and difficulty in processing.The synthesis of other birefringent crystals is an important project which researchers have been studying for a long time.
Recently many have started using alpha-Barium Borate or alpha-BBO crystals in their applications. These crystals have larger margins of birefringence over the transparent range from 189 nm to 3500 nm.They are usually grown by the Czochralski and other top seeded flux methods. However, the crystal grown by the above methods are easy to crack. We have developed a better method.

Our Technology

We have developed an alpha-BBO crystal with larger birefringence and a wide transmission window from UV to NIR. Our crystals are chemically stable, and have glasslike toughness, facilitating their fabrication into high precision optical components for lasers and other high damage applications. Our crystal is of good size and possess' the following beneficial features:

Alpha-BBO Specs

Material: Alpha-BBO
Structure: Hexagon R 3 c
Hardness: 4.5 Mohs
Transmission Window: 189 - 3500nm
Extinction Ratio: 10-6

How to choose BBO crystal for type II THG

1040.0(e)+ 520.0(o)= 346.7(e)
Walkoff [mrad] = 71.83 0.00 78.64
Phase velocities = c/ 1.605 1.675 1.652
Group velocities = c/ 1.624 1.725 1.762
Group vel. dispersion in 10^5 cm/sec*m-1=
-0.23 -0.80 -1.31
At theta = 39.6 deg.
deff = 1.25 pm/V
Field gain coeff. = 1.39E-4 /sqrt.Watt
Crystal ang. tol. = 0.38 mrad*m
Temperature range = 15.39 K*m
OPO accpt ang = 0.90 0.43 mrad*m
OPO accpt bw = 9.87 9.87 cm-1*m

1040.0(o)+ 520.0(e)= 346.7(e)
Walkoff [mrad] = 0.00 59.12 62.77
Phase velocities = c/ 1.655 1.580 1.605
Group velocities = c/ 1.674 1.618 1.700
Group vel. dispersion in 10^5 cm/sec*m-1=
-0.28 -0.68 -1.22
At theta = 61.9 deg.
deff = 0.419 pm/V
Field gain coeff. = 4.78E-5 /sqrt.Watt
Crystal ang. tol. = 0.90 mrad*m
Temperature range = 17.42 K*m
OPO accpt ang = 1.06 0.56 mrad*m
OPO accpt bw = 17.79 17.79 cm-1*m

Please notice that the parameter of 'deff' means NLO coefficient. You can see that the conversion efficiency of the first match is much higher than the second one. So, normally, most of people select the first phase matching angle.

Below is a partial stock of BBO crystal for type II THG. Please e-mail us for current stock availability and pricing.

BBO crystal for type II THG.
 1040.0(e)+ 520.0(o)= 346.7(e)
At theta = 39.6 deg., phi=30deg.
  1030.0(e)+ 515.0(o)= 343.3(e)
At theta = 40.1 deg.., phi=30deg.

Del Mar Photonics featured optical components

Del Mar Photonics continuously expands its optical components portfolio. Browse our online store, read monthly notes about our featured optical products or just send us your requirements or product ideas. 

Axicon Lens Axicon lens also known as conical lens or rotationally symmetric prism is widely used in different scientific research and application. Axicon can be used to convert a parallel laser beam into a ring, to create a non diffractive Bessel beam or to focus a parallel beam into long focus depth. Del Mar Photonics supplies axicons with cone angles range from 130° to 179.5° for use with virtually any laser radiation. We manufacture and supply axicons made from BK7 glass, fused silica and other materials. buy online - download brochure

Rutile (TiO2) coupling prisms Del Mar Photonics offers optical elements made of high quality synthetically grown Rutile Titanium Dioxide crystals. Rutile’s strong birefringency, wide transmission range and good mechanical properties make it suitable for fabrication of polarizing cubes, prisms and optical isolators. Boules having high optical transmission and homogeneity are grown by proprietary method. Typical boules have 10 - 15 mm in dia. and up to 25 mm length. Optical elements sizes - from 2 x 2 x 1 mm to 12.7 x 12.7 x 12.7 mm. Laser grade polish quality is available for finished elements. So far we the largest elements that we manufactured are 12 x15 x 5 mm, in which optical axis is parallel to 15 mm edge, 5 mm is along beam path, 12 x 15 mm faces polished 20/10 S/D, one wave flatness, parallelism < 3 arc.min. (better specs. available on request). more details - buy online - download brochure

Vacuum viewport Del Mar Photonics offer a range of competitively priced UHV viewports , Conflat, ISO or KF including a variety of coatings to enhance performance. Del Mar Photonics viewports are manufactured using advanced techniques for control of special and critical processes, including 100 percent helium leak testing and x-ray measurements for metallization control. Windows Materials include: Fused silica, Quartz , Sapphire , MgF2, BaF2, CaF2, ZnSe, ZnS, Ge, Si, Pyrex. Standard Viewing diameters from .55" to 1.94 ". Coating - a range of custom coatings can applied - which include - Single QWOT - Broad Band AR - V coatings - ITO - DLC (Diamond like coating) more details - request a quote

Manufacturing challenging optical components Our group works to characterize the interaction of biomolecules with solid surfaces, writes Dennis Hore of University of Victoria, Canada.  Nature designs proteins with well-defined structures in solution.  The conformation of these molecules may serve a structural purpose, or a chemical one in the case of enzymes.  In order to further the progress of technologies that immobilize such molecules on synthetic surfaces (like biosensors employing enzymes), it is important to have a detailed understanding and control of the interactions of these molecules with the surface more For that project Del Mar has been able to manufacture all shapes of prisms from CaF2, fused silica, and ZnSe according to our custom specifications. Del Mar Photonics online store features windows, prisms, lenses, attenuators, etalons, crystals and wafers, and other items. Axicons, barium fluoride windows, germanium etalons, rutile (TiO2) prisms, microchannel plates and detectors, saturable absorber mirrors, photoconductive THz antennas, lithium niobate wafers and crystals and many other high quality affordable components for scientific research and OEM production are delivered globally from stock. Micro Prism from Del Mar Photonics - Concentrating Photovoltaics

We are looking forward to hear from you and help you with your optical and crystal components requirements. Need time to think about it? Drop us a line and we'll send you beautiful Del Mar Photonics mug (or two) so you can have a tea party with your colleagues and discuss your potential needs

Trestles LH femtosecond lasers with integrated DPSS DMPLH laser pump - DPSS DMPLH lasers