Beta-Barium Borate Crystal (β _BaB2O4, BBO)

BBO crystal is an important nonlinear optical crystals with combination of unique optical properties. Broad transmission and phase matching ranges, large nonlinear coefficient, high damage threshold and excellent optical homogeneity provide attractive possibilities for various nonlinear optical applications.

Advantages:
Broad phase matching (SHG) range from 409.6nm to 3500nm
Wide transmission region from 190nm to 3500nm
Large effective SHG coefficient
High damage threshold of 10 GW/cm2 for 100 PS pulse-widths at 1064nm
High optical homogeneity with Dn 10-6/cm2
Wide temperature bandwidth of about 55° (for type I SHG 1064nm)
Good mechanical and physical properties
BBO's Applications
BBO is of particular importance in the visible and far UV. A wide variety of phase-matching applications are possible.
Frequency-doubling, -tripling and -mixing of dye lasers
Second, third, fourth, and fifth harmonic generation of ND doping lasers
Second harmonic generation to generate wavelengths as short as 204.8nm
Shorter wavelengths(193nm) can be generated by sum frequency mixing
Optical parametric amplifiers (OPA) and optical parametric oscillators (OPO)
Second, third, and fourth harmonic generation of Ti: Sapphire lasers
Frequency-doubling of Argon ion, Cu-vapor and Ruby lasers
HG's warranty on BBO specification:
Wavefront distortion: Less than λ / 8 @ 633nm
Dimension tolerance: (W ± 0.1mm) X (H ± 0.1mm) X (L ± 0.2mm/-0.1mm)
Aperture: > 90% central diameter
Flatness: Λ / 8 @ 633nm
Finish: 10 / 5 to MIL-PRF-13830B
Parallelism: Better than 20 arc seconds
Perpendicularity: 5 arc minutes
Angle deviation: Θ ≤ ± 0.25 ° , φ ≤ ± 0.25 °
Quality guarantee period: One year