Production of Testing of Laser Crystals

Lasers and nonlinear optical system are being developed to allow the construction of all solid state lasers with tunable output in the mid-infrared (3-5{micro}m). In these systems potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) and its analogs (KTA, RTA and CTA) are used to construct Optical Parametric Oscillators (OPOs). In the past, large (5 mm x 5 mm x 15 mm) crystals of KTA, RTA and CTA have been difficult to obtain, and were costly as well. Also, the arsenate materials were limited in spectral range due to an AsO{sub 4} overtone in the 3.5 to 5.0 {micro}m region. There has also been interest in materials which self-OPO. This process is done by doping nonlinear materials with lasing ions. This effort investigated the development of mixed metal analogs of KTA, which would last and also suppress the AsO{sub 4} absorption overtones to allow more efficient mid-infrared OPO operation