Sources of optical distortion in rapidly grown crystals of KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4}

We report results of x-ray topographic and optical measurements on KH{sub 2}PO{sub 4} crystals grown at rates of 5 to 30mm/day. We show that optical distortion in these crystals is caused primarily by 3 sources: dislocations, differences in composition between adjacent growth sectors of the crystal, and differences in composition between adjacent sectors of vicinal growth hillocks within a single growth sector of the crystal. We find that the compositional heterogeneities cause spatial variations in the refractive index and induced distortion of the transmitted wave front while large groups of dislocations are responsible for strain induced birefringence which leads to beam depolarization