Description
LiNbO3 Crystal is widely used as frequency doublers for wavelength > 1mm and optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) pumped at 1064 nm as well as quasi-phase-matched (QPM) devices. Due to its large Electro-Optic (E-O) and Acousto-Optic (A-O) coefficients, LiNbO3 crystal is the most commonly used material for Pockel Cells, Q-switches and phase modulators, waveguide substrate, and surface acoustic wave (SAW) wafers, etc.

One of the most versatile nonlinear crystals, lithium niobate has a wide range of applications, including:Optical modulation and Q-switching. Thanks to its large electro-optic coefficients, lithium niobate is well suited to optical modulation and Q-switching of infrared wavelengths.

Among its advantages in these applications are:
Zero residual birefringence
Transverse electric field to direction of light propagation
Nonhygroscopic
Low half-wave
Second harmonic generation,particularly with low power laser diodes in the 1.3 to 1.55 m range.
Optical parametric oscillation. With its high nonlinear coefficients, lithium niobate is an efficient medium for optical parametric oscillation.

Phasematching.To generate tunable wavelengths over a broad wavelength range, lithium niobate phasematching processes offer:

Features

Broad spectral transmission ranging from 0.4 m to 5.0 m with an OH- absorption at 2.87 m
Large negative birefringence
Large nonlinear coefficients

Difference frequency mixing. Lithium niobate generates tunable infrared wavelengths through a difference frequency mixing process. Typical powers for 10 nanosecond pulses and 5-mm beams are:

30 mJ/pulse of 0.640 m minus 40 mJ/pulse of 1.064 m to produce 2.5 mJ/pulse at 1.54 m
32 mJ/pulse of 0.532 m minus 32 mJ/pulse of 0.640 m to produce 0.25 mJ/pulse at 3.42 m

Magnesium Oxide Doped Lithium Niobate Crystals (MgO:LiNbO3)
Compared with LiNbO3 crystal, MgO:LiNbO3 crystal exhibits its particular advantages for NCPM frequency doubling (SHG) of Nd:Lasers, mixing (SFG) and optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). The SHG efficiencies
of over 65% for pulsed Nd:YAG lasers and 45% for cw Nd:YAG lasers have been achieved in MgO:LiNbO3 crystals, respectively. MgO:LiNbO3 is also a good crystal for optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) and amplifiers (OPAs), quasi-phase-matched doublers and integrated waveguide.
MgO:LiNbO3 has similar effective nonlinear coefficients to pure LiNbO3. Its Sellmeier equations are:
no (l) = 4.8762+0.11554/(l - 0.04674) - 0.033119 x l (l in um)
no (l) = 4.5469+0.094779/(l - 0.04439) - 0.026721 x l
Metalaser provides high quality MgO:LiNbO3 crystals for various nonlinear optics (NLO) and E-O applications. The typical size of MgO:LiNbO3 crystals is (3 - 10) x (3 - 10) x (10 - 30) mm3 for OPOs & OPAs and frequency doubling & mixing, and 20x20x1 mm3 for waveguide substrates. Other specs. and AR-coatings for MgO:LiNbO3 are available upon request.

Specification