LASER-HEATED PEDESTAL GROWTH OF PURE AND ND3-DOPED POTASSIUM LITHIUM-NIOBATE SINGLE-CRYSTAL FIBERS()

Due to their incongruent melting, potassium lithium niobate K3Li2-xNb5 +xO15+2x (KLN, 0.15 < x < 0.5) crystals are difficult to grow by conve ntional methods such as Czochralski or TSSG. Using the laser heated pe destal growth technique, compositionally homogeneous a-axis oriented K LN single-crystal fibers free of macro-defects were successfully grown . The crystal length was between 10 and 40 mm for a diameter of about 500 mu m. After etching, the fibers appeared to be mostly single domai n, allowing blue laser light by second harmonic generation from an inf rared laser emission.