A New Family of Optical Materials for High Power Optical Frequency Conversion

This Phase I Small Business Innovation Research project aims to develop a novel and highly versatile family of NLO crystals that may overcome the limitations of conventional technology. These materials are multifunctional and exhibit a number of unique properties that include, high nonlinearities, high damage thresholds, wide transparency range, are non-hygroscopic, and melt congruently. The unique structure type affords broad crystal engineering capabilities for tuning properties such as acceptance angles, birefringence, damage thresholds, and temperature bandwidths. In Phase I, ReyTech, Inc., will demonstrate feasibility by preparing small optical quality crystals and evaluate their optical properties. The most promising of these materials will be optimized in Phase II, in preparation for Phase III commercialization. The need for new optical materials is clearly evident from the substantial amount of time and money being devoted to this research by industry and government agencies. Although many NLO materials have been developed for specific applications, emerging technologies require new optical materials with specific properties. Essential to the growth of the photonics industry is the development of new laser materials and nonlinear optical (NLO) materials.