Abstract

Applications of lithium niobate in nonlinear optics at high light intensities are seriously hampered by optical damage. Recent investigations have shown that ${\mathrm{Hf}}^{4+}$ and ${\mathrm{Zr}}^{4+}$ ions have some advantages in suppressing optical damage of $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$ with respect to ${\mathrm{Mg}}^{2+}$. Here we present Sn-doped $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$ (Sn:LN). Experimental results indicate that Sn:LN has similar optical damage resistance to Mg-doped $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$, but the doping threshold of Sn is only $2.5\mathrm{mol.}\mathrm{\%}$, where its distribution coefficient is 0.98. Hence ${\mathrm{Sn}}^{4+}$ ion turns out to be another good choice for increasing optical damage resistance of $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Nb}{\mathrm{O}}_3$.

© 2010 Optical Society of America

High resistance against ultraviolet photorefraction in zirconium-doped lithium niobate crystals

Fucai Liu, Yongfa Kong, Wei Li, Hongde Liu, Shiguo Liu, Shaolin Chen, Xinzheng Zhang, Romano Rupp, and Jingjun Xu
Opt. Lett. 35(1) 10-12 (2010)

An excellent crystal for high resistance against optical damage in visible-UV range: near-stoichiometric zirconium-doped lithium niobate

Hongde Liu, Qirui Liang, Meiling Zhu, Wei Li, Shiguo Liu, Ling Zhang, Shaolin Chen, Yongfa Kong, and Jingjun Xu
Opt. Express 19(3) 1743-1748 (2011)

Optical-damage-resistant impurities in lithium niobate

T. Volk, N. Rubinina, and M. Wöhlecke
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 11(9) 1681-1687 (1994)

Photorefractive damage resistance threshold in stoichiometric LiNbO₃:Zr crystals

László Kovács, Zsuzsanna Szaller, Krisztián Lengyel, Ágnes Péter, Ivett Hajdara, Gábor Mandula, László Pálfalvi, and János Hebling
Opt. Lett. 38(15) 2861-2864 (2013)

Suppression of optical damage at 532 nm in Holmium doped congruent lithium niobate

Eftihia Barnes, Nathan H. O’Connell, Nicolas R. Balli, Madhab Pokhrel, Anush Movsesyan, Edvard Kokanyan, and Dhiraj K. Sardar
Opt. Express 22(21) 26222-26231 (2014)