| BBO (beta-BaB2O4) is an excellent non-linear crystal for frequency-doubling (SHG) of Visible and Near IR laser light, OPO/OPG/OPA pumped by ultrafast pulses of wavelengths in the Near IR to UV, and sum-frequency mixing (SFM) into the Visible to the deep UV. BBO is one of the few practical crystal for use below 500 nm in SHG and SFM. BBO crystal has broad tunability, high damage threshold, and high efficiency. BBO's small acceptance angle requires a very good beam quality and its large walkoff results in output beams that are very elliptical or slit-like. Type I is usually much more efficient than type II operation. BBO can not be used for NCPM (temperature tuned) application. |
BBO is very good for tunable laser sources, such as ultrafast Ti:Sapphire or dye lasers. And it is also widely used for SHG, 3HG, 4HG, and autocorrelation of femtosecond and picosecond Ti:Sapphire lasers; SHG, 3HG, 4HG, 5HG of YAG lasers at 1064 nm and 1320 nm to yield output of 212-660nm; SHG of tunable dye or solid-state laser sources from 410-750 nm to yield output of 205-375 nm, SFM of dye laser and YAG harmonics to yield output of 189-400 nm; DFM (difference-frequency mixing) from the Visible to the IR range up to over 3000 nm; OPO pumped with SHG or 3HG of YAG or Ti:Sapphire with an output range of 400-3000 ; Intracavity SHG of Argon ion lasers (488, 514 nm) or Copper vapor lasers (510 nm, 578 nm).
