Study of laser induced damage threshold and effect of inclusions in some nonlinear crystals

The paper reports the comparative studies on the laser-induced single-shot and multiple-shot surface damage thresholds of nonlinear crystals, viz. Ure a, 3-methyl-3-nitropyridine-1 oxide (POM), L-arginine phosphate (LAP) and b eta-barium berate (BBO) crystals. The measurements were made using radiatio n of 1064 nm and its second harmonic generation, i.e. 532 nm from a Q-switc hed Nd:YAG laser of pulse width 10 ns. In addition, the effect of Na+ impur ity incorporated during growth in BBO crystal in different concentration (w t.%) has also been studied, and attempted to be correlated with various fac tors. We also measured the absorption coefficients of these crystals at dif ferent wavelengths. The Scanning Electron Microscope coupled with Energy Di spersive X-Ray Analyzer (SEM-EDX) has been employed to study the inclusions /impurities present in the crystals. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.