ORTHORHOMBIC FERROELECTRIC AND FERROELASTIC GD-2(MOO4)(3) CRYSTAL - ANEW MANY-PURPOSED NONLINEAR AND OPTICAL MATERIAL - EFFICIENT MULTIPLESTIMULATED RAMAN-SCATTERING AND CW AND TUNABLE 2ND-HARMONIC GENERATION

The nonlinear optical properties of a ferroelectric and ferroelastic b eta'-Gd-2(MoO4)(3) laser crystal-host were studied by second harmonic generation (SHG) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) experiments usi ng different laser sources for excitation. It is shown that the invest igated crystals are very attractive for SHG with IR CW lasers as well as for continuously tunable SHG under illumination with a femtosecond hyper-continuum light source. Furthermore, up to five Stokes and five anti-Stokes lines have been obtained in picosecond SRS experiments wit h a total conversion efficiency of about 70%. Interaction of SHG and S RS, as well as a new effect, which may be called quasi-hyper SRS, have been observed with insulating crystal for the first time. We classify the beta'-Gd-2(MoO4)(3):Nd as a promising laser medium for pulsed and CW self-frequency doubling lasers.