Abstract

The wide band gap of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) allows it to be transmissive throughout much of the uv, making KDP an extremely useful nonlinear material-However, the optical properties of KDP under intense- optical excitation in the uv are relatively unexplored. Using pump-probe techniques, we studied the interaction of intense picosecond uv pulses with KDP. KDP was optically excited with intense (GW/cm²) picosecond uv pump pulses near 266 nm, and subsequently probed by various time-delayed picosecond pulses at 266 nm, 532 nm, and a subpicosecond white-light continuum-We observed the picosecond formation dynamics of long-lived, optically generated defect states with a characteristic broad absorption extending from the uv to the visible.

© 1992 Optical Society of America