Optical damage limits in chalcogenide nonlinear crystals used in 1064nm pumped nanosecond optical parametric oscillators

Valentin Petrov; Georgi Marchev; Aleksey Tyazhev; Marina Starikova; Adolfo Esteban-Martin; Vladimir Panyutin; Valeriy Badikov; Galina Shevyrdyaeva; Dmitrii Badikov; Manuel Reza; Svetlana Sheina; Anna Fintisova

doi:10.1117/12.2020355

9 July 2013 Optical damage limits in chalcogenide nonlinear crystals used in 1064nm pumped nanosecond optical parametric oscillators

Valentin Petrov, Georgi Marchev, Aleksey Tyazhev, Marina Starikova, Adolfo Esteban-Martin, Vladimir Panyutin, Valeriy Badikov, Galina Shevyrdyaeva, Dmitrii Badikov, Manuel Reza, Svetlana Sheina, Anna Fintisova

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8786, Pacific Rim Laser Damage 2013: Optical Materials for High Power Lasers; 878603 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2020355
Event: SPIE/SIOM Pacific Rim Laser Damage: Optical Materials for High-Power Lasers, 2013, Shanghai, China

Abstract

We investigated optical damage (surface and bulk) in wide band-gap (absorption edge below 532 nm) sulphide and selenide nonlinear crystals that can be used in 1064-nm pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) for generation of idler pulses above 4 μm without two-photon absorption losses at the pump wavelength. The optical damage has been characterized at the pump wavelength for different repetition rates. Surface damage has been studied for uncoated and antireflection-coated (mainly with a single layer for pump and signal wavelengths) samples. Optical damage inside the OPO has a lower threshold and represents at present the principal limitation for the achievable output. It is related to peak and not to average intensities and in many of the studied crystals bulk damage in the form of scattering centers occurs before surface damage. Such bulk damage formation is faster at higher repetition rate. Lower repetition rates increase the lifetime of the crystal but do not solve the problem. In the most successful nonlinear crystal (both in terms of output energy and average power), orange-phase HgGa₂S₄, the safe pump intensity in extracavity measurements is below 100 MW/cm² which corresponds to less than 1 J/cm² for the 8 ns pulse duration (both values peak on-axis). In the OPO, however, peak on-axis fluence should not exceed 0.3 J/cm² limited by the formation of bulk scattering centers. The damage resistivity of yellow-phase HgGa₂S₄ or Cd-doped HgGa₂S₄ is higher and of the almost colorless CdGa₂S₄ it is roughly two times higher but the latter has no sufficient birefringence for phase-matching.

Citation Download Citation

Valentin Petrov, Georgi Marchev, Aleksey Tyazhev, Marina Starikova, Adolfo Esteban-Martin, Vladimir Panyutin, Valeriy Badikov, Galina Shevyrdyaeva, Dmitrii Badikov, Manuel Reza, Svetlana Sheina, and Anna Fintisova "Optical damage limits in chalcogenide nonlinear crystals used in 1064nm pumped nanosecond optical parametric oscillators", Proc. SPIE 8786, Pacific Rim Laser Damage 2013: Optical Materials for High Power Lasers, 878603 (9 July 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2020355

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available