Crystals and optics processing services

Polarization Beamsplitter Cubes are constructed by cemented two right angle prisms, the hypotenuse of one prism is coated with polarization dielectric coating. When used with normal incident, un-polarized light, the incident beam is separated into two polarized beams, p-polarized component is passed straight through, s-polarized component is reflected out at 90deg.

Co2+:MgAl2O4 Cospinel is a relatively new material for passive Q-switching in lasers emitting from 1.2 to 1.6 μm, in particular, for eye-safe 1.54 μm Er:glass laser, but also works at 1.44 μm and 1.34 μm wavelengths. Spinel is a hard, stable crystal that polishes well. Cobalt substitutes readily for magnesium in the Spinel host without the need for additional charge compensation ions. High absorption cross section (3.5×10-19 cm2) permits Q-switching of Er:glass laser without intracavity focusing both with flash-lamp and diode-laser pumping. Negligible excited-state absorption results in high contrast of Q-switch, i.e. the ratio of initial (small signal) to saturated absorption is higher than 10.

α-BBO (α-BaB2O4) is a negative uniaxial crystal which has large birefringence over a broad transparent range of 190nm to 3500nm. α-BBO is an excellent crystal especially in UV and high power applications. The physical, chemical, thermal, and optical properties of alpha-BBO crystal are similar to those of Beta-BBO. However, there is no second order nonlinear effect in alpha-BBO crystal due to the centrosymmetry in its crystal structure and thus it has no use for second order nonlinear optical processes. Instead, alpha-BBO is widely used for fabrication of polarizers, polarizing beam displacers, phase retarders, birefringent plates, and time delay compensators especially those for UV and high power lasers.

Plano-convex rectangular cylindrical lenses are useful for line imaging or uni-axial magnification in a wide range of applications. These lenses may be combined with other lenses to form complex imaging systems.

Er3+, Yb3+ co-doped phosphate glass is a well-known and commonly used active medium for lasers emitting in the “eye-safe” spectral range of 1,5-1,6 µm. As an eye-safe wavelength laser, 1540um ,Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped phosphate glass lasers have attracted much attention for their compactness and low cost, such as laser generation and signal amplification because the wavelength of 1540nm is just at the position of the eye-safe and the fiber optic communication window. 1540nm lasers have used in ranging finder, radar, target recognition. Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped phosphate glass cooperate with passive Q-Switch crystal cospinel can get 1540nm pulse solid-state laser.

Er: YAG (Erbium-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet) is a solid-state crystal widely used as a laser medium in various medical and dental applications. It is made by doping erbium ions into yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) crystals and can emit laser light with a wavelength of approximately 2.94 micrometers in the infrared spectrum.

Nd:YVO4 (Neodymium Doped Yttrium Orthovanadate) crystals is one of the most promising commercially available diode pumped solid state laser materials, especially, for low to middle power density. This is mainly for its higher absorption and emission features than Nd:YAG crystal. Pumped by laser diodes, Nd:YVO4 crystal has been incorporated with high NLO coefficient crystals ( LBO, BBO, or KTP) to frequency-shift the output from the near infrared to green, blue, or even UV. This incorporation to construct all solid state lasers is an ideal laser tool that can cover the most widespread applications of lasers, including machining, material processing, spectroscopy, wafer inspection, light displays, medical diagnostics, laser printing, and data storage, etc. It has been shown that Nd:YVO4 based diode pumped solid state lasers are rapidly occupying the markets traditionally dominated by water-cooled ion lasers and lamp-pumped lasers, especially when compact design and single-longitudinal-mode outputs are required.

HGO grows Tm:YLF laser crystals using Czochralski technology. Tm:YLF is an important middle infrared laser crystal. Because Tm:YLF is negative uniaxial crystal, whose thermal refractive index coefficient is negative, some thermal distortion may be counteracted and high-quality light can be output. Conveniently pumped at 792nm, 1.9μm linearly polarized beam is output in a axis, and non-linearly polarized beam is output in c axis. The YLF crystals has low non-linear refraction index value and thermo optical constants, which makes these crystals applicable in research, development, education, production, photonics, optic, laser technology and telecommunications. Besides, Tm3+:YLF lasers are ideal pump sources for 2.1 μm Ho3+:YAG lasers. This is due to a good overlap of Tm3+:YLF emission and Ho3+:YAG absorption spectra and the capacity of producing linearly polarized output. What is more, the refractive index of Tm3+:YLF decreases with temperature, leading to a negative thermal lens that is partly compensated by a positive lens effect due to end face bulging.