Growth of Barium Lead Titanates for Nonlinear Optics

本项目研究了钛酸铅钡混合晶体的合成和加工，作为一种性能得到改善的新型非线性光学材料。钛酸钡是一种应用广泛的光折变光学材料，但不适用于倍频、参量放大等非线性光学应用。铅的加入增加了钛酸铅钡混合晶体的自发极化，可能增加了双折射和非线性极化率。该项目的主要重点将是研究生长光学质量良好的大而均匀的单晶所需的晶体生长参数；还将利用光学、X射线和化学分析进行详细的材料表征程序。这个项目涉及的许多基本性质将对技术应用感兴趣，例如光学数据处理。

This project investigates the synthesis and processing of mixed barium lead titanate crystals for use as a new nonlinear optical material with improved properties. Barium titanate is widely used as a photorefractive optical material, but is not suitable for nonlinear optical applications such as frequency doubling and parametric amplification. The addition of lead to form the mixed barium lead titanate crystal increases the spontaneous polarization and could possibly increase the birefringence and the nonlinear susceptibility. Major emphasis of the project will be on a study of the crystal growth parameters necessary for growth of large, homogeneous single crystals of good optical quality; a detailed program of materials characterization will also be performed utilizing optical, X-ray, and chemical analyses. Many of the fundamental properties being addressed on this project will be of interest for technological applications, such as optical data processing.