Critical Issues Of Materials Selection For Frequency Conversion.

Tunable laser sources ranging from UV visible to IR may be achieved by frequency conversion of lasers at fixed or tunable output using nonlinear crystals. The selection of nonlinear crystals for various applications is discussed, and their performance is compared. Specific systems discussed and compared among various nonlinear crystals include: (1) three-color output from a YAG laser combining CDA (type I doubling) and KDP (type II tripling); (2) intracavity second harmonic generation (SHG) using LiIO//3 and KTP; and (3) SHG and optical parametric oscillation using area and baseband oscillation for the generation of UV sources from YAG and dye lasers