Beta-barium Borate as a Pockels Cell for Excimer Lasers

提出了一种新的非线性晶体，β -硼酸钡（BB0），作为准分子激光器的Pockels电池，工作在248nm，以产生峰值强度。目前，现有商用Pockels电池的各种材料相关问题限制了其在300nm以下的应用。量子技术公司的研究人员培育了他们自己的BB0晶体，这些晶体将用于实验。它在190nm以下具有良好的透射性，具有4gw /cm2的高损伤阈值，并且可以在1064nm处处理高达100瓦的平均功率。利用r11电光系数设计248nm的BBO波克尔斯电池。晶体将被定向，使得场沿（100）施加并且光束沿（001）传播。目前可用的BBO晶体的最大长度限制在10毫米。晶体尺寸为5 × 5 × 10 mm3，理论半波电压预计为14 KV。然而，通过使用两个相同的晶体在光学上串联和电上并联，14kv的半波电压将在248nm处降低到7kv。在QTI生长的BBO晶体将用于这项工作。将组装一个BBO Pockels电池，并对其在248nm的应用进行全面表征。

A novel nonlinear crystal, beta- barium borate (BB0), is proposed to be used as a Pockels cell for excimer lasers operating at 248 nm for the generation of high peak intensities. At present, a variety of material related problems of existing commercial Pockels cells have limited their use below 300 nm. The researchers at Quantum Technology Inc. grow their own BB0 crystals, and these crystals will be used in the experiments. It has good transmission down to 190 nm, has a high damage threshold of 4 GW/cm2 and can handle average powers up to 100 watts at 1064 nm. A BBO Pockels cell will be designed at 248 nm utilizing the r11 electro- optic coefficient. The crystal will be oriented such that the field is applied along (100) and the beam will propagate along (001). The maximum length of BBO crystals presently available is limited to 10 mm. With a crystal dimension 5 x 5 x 10 mm3, the theoretical half-wave voltage is expected to be 14 KV. However, by employing two identical crystals optically in series and electrically in parallel, the half- wave voltage of 14 KV will be reduced to 7 KV at 248nm. BBO crystals grown at QTI will be used in this work. A BBO Pockels cell will be assembled and completely characterized for use at 248 nm.