Abstract

Crystals of congruent LiNbO₃ are prepared by the Czochralski technique from Li₂O deficient melts and contain up to 5% intrinsic defects. As a result, congruent LiNbO₃ is susceptible to optical damage when used for second harmonic generation (SHG) of the 1.06 µm output of a Nd:YAG laser. On the other hand, crystals grown by the same technique from non-congruent melts exhibit significant compositional variations along their length due to segregation effects, with a corresponding deleterious effect on many physical properties such as Curie point, birefringence, phase matching temperature and absorption edge.

© 1998 IEEE