β-BBO Crystal—a widely used nonlinear crystal for frequency conversion in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared
BBO Crystal is one of the essential nonlinear optical crystals. Beta-barium borate (β-BaB2O4，β-BBO) combines many outstanding features such as its high nonlinear optical coefficients and low group-velocity dispersion, broad transparency range (189–3500 nm) high damage threshold. This unique combination ensures that β-BBO crystal is a promising candidate for nonlinear optical applications such as frequency converters and optical parametric oscillators. In quantum optics, β-BBO crystal can generate entangled photon pairs and ten-photon entanglement.
BBO nonlinear crystal is a negative uniaxial crystal. It provides phase matching for various second-order interactions almost over its entire transparency range. This transparency ranges from 185 nm to 3.3 µm, as inferred from transmittance measurements using crystal samples of a few mm thickness. It is widely used for nonlinear frequency conversion in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared. The BBO crystal is the most critical nonlinear crystal for near-infrared optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers, which currently deliver few optical cycle pulses with high average and ultrahigh peak powers.
Parameter
| Property | Value |
| Chemical Formula | BaB2O4 |
| Crystal Structure | trigonal, 3m |
| Lattice Parameter | a=b=12.532Å,c=12.717Å, Z=6 |
| Mass Density | 3.85 g/cm3 |
| Moh Hardness | 4 |
| Melting Point | About 1095°C |
| Thermal Conductivity | 1.2 W/m/K (⊥c); 1.6 W/m/K (//c) |
| Thermal Expansion Coefficient | α,4×10-6/K; c,36×10-6/K |
| Birefringence | negative uniaxial |
| Property | Value |
| Transparency Range | 189 – 3500 nm |
| Absorption Coefficient | α<0.1%/cm @1064nm |
| Refractive Indices | |
| at 1.0642 μm | ne = 1.5425, no = 1.6551 |
| at 0.5321 μm | ne = 1.5555, no = 1.6749 |
| at 0.2660 μm | ne = 1.6146, no = 1.7571 |
| Sellmeier Equations(λ in μm) | no2(λ) = 2.7359+0.01878/(λ2-0.01822)-0.01354λ2 |
| ne2(λ) = 2.3753+0.01224/(λ2-0.01667)-0.01516λ2 | |
| Property | Value |
| SHG Phase Matchable Range | 409.6 ∼ 3500nm (Type I); 525 ∼ 3500nm (TypeII) |
| NLO Coefficients | d11= 5.8 x d36(KDP); d31 = 0.05 x d11; d22< 0.05 x d11 |
| deff(I)=d31sinθ+ (d11cos3φ – d22sin3φ)cosθ | |
| deff(II)=(d11sin3φ+ d22cos3θ)cos2θ | |
| Therm-Optic Coefficients | dno/dT = – 9.3 x 10-6/◦C |
| dne/dT = -16.6 x 10-6/◦C | |
| Electro-Optic Coefficients | g11= 2.7 pm/V, g22, g31< 0.1 g11 |
| Half-Wave Voltage | 48 KV (at 1064 nm) |
| Damage Threshold | |
| at 1.064 μm | 5 GW/cm2 (10 ns); 10 GW/cm2 (1.3 ns) |
| at 0.532 μm | 1 GW/cm2 (10 ns); 7 GW/cm2 (250 ps) |
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| BBO Transmission Spectrum | The SHG Tuning Curve of BBO |
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| BBO’s OPO tuning curves type I OOE under different pump lamps, 53nm,355nm and 266nm | BBO’s OPO tuning curve type II EOE under different pump lamps 530 nm 355 nm and 266 nm |
BBO crystal for SHG@1600 nm
Size:4*4*0.1mm;
Clear aperture: >90%;
2-side polishing;
Coating: AR/AR@1600 nm& 800 nm
BBO crystal for Pockels cell
Dimension: 3×3×20 mm;
Phase matching : Type I;
S1:AR@1030nm(R<0.2%);
S2:AR@1030nm(R<0.2%);
S3:Cr+Au coating;
S4:Cr+Au coating
BBO crystal case 3
Size: 4*4*20mm, z-cut;
AR/AR@1030nm,R<0.1%;
Electrodes on X faces(with Au/Cr electrodes.);
Damage threshold: >7J/cm2@1064nm, 10ns,10HZ
BBO crystal case 4
Size: 5*5*10 （+/-0.1）mm
Type I, Theta= 65.4°， Phi= 90°
Coating: S1,S2, AR/AR@450 & 225 nm
BBO crystal case 6
Dimensions: 6×6×1 mm, 6×6×5 mm;
Coating S1/S2: protective AR@515nm
BBO crystal case 7 for OPA
Size: 6×6×2 mm;
Coating: Protective AR@515nm
BBO crystal case 8 for 2nd harmonic generation from Ti:Sapphire laser
Size: 20×20×0.3 mm;
S1&S2: Polished and AR – 800/400nm
BBO crystal case 9 for 1500 nm frequency doubling
Size: 2×2×5 mm;
Type I;
AR/AR coating
BBO crystal case 10 for SHG
① Size: 6×6×6 mm;
SHG eoe 744 nm → 372 nm;
② Size: 6×6×9 mm;
SHG eoe 744 nm + 372 nm → 248 nm
Size:6×6×6 mm;
Thickness:0.8 （+0/-0.1）mm
Coating:AR/AR@1030nm&535nm
- The range of transmission is from 190 nm to 3500nm
- Good physical properties
- Appropriate mechanical properties
- Effective SHG(Second-harmonic generation) coefficient is large
- Damage threshold of 100 ps pulse with 10 J/cm2 at 1064 nm
- The range of phase matching is large from 409.6 nm to 3500nm
- Temperature bandwidth is about 55℃
- Optical homogeneity is high:δn≈10-6/cm
- Material Processing
266nm laser - Optical Communication
1600nm laser - Radar and Ranging
1064nm,532nm,355nm laser - Medical Applications
532nm laser
1064nm/532nm laser
| Collinear and non-collinear sum-frequency mixing in β-BBO for a tunable 195–198 nm all-solid-state laser system Appl. Phys. B 61,529-532 (1995) |
| Consideration of angular acceptance angle in BBO crystal on a highly efficient second harmonic generation Optics & Laser Technology Volume 30, Issues 3–4, April–June 1998, Pages 189-192 |
| Generation of 125 mW frequency stabilized continuous-wave tunable laser light at 295 nm by frequency doubling in a BBO crystal Optics Communications Volume 213, Issues 4–6, 1 December 2002, Pages 347-350 |
| Characterization of OPCPA with BBO crystal for femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser pulses CLEO/Pacific Rim 2003. The 5th Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8671) |
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| Theoretical investigation of phase-mismatched second-harmonic conversion efficiency in BBO crystal Optik Volume 161, May 2018, Pages 196-203 |
| Characterization of nonlinear optical parameters of KDP, LiNbO3 and BBO crystals Optics Communications Volume 229, Issues 1–6, 2 January 2004, Pages 403-412 |
| Characterization of nonlinear refractive indices of KDP, KTP, LiNBO/sub 3/ and BBO crystals at 1064 nm and 532 nm CLEO/Pacific Rim 2003. The 5th Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8671) |
| Nonlinear LBO and BBO crystals for extreme light sources 2010 International Conference on Advanced Optoelectronics and Lasers |
| Sum and difference frequency generation of white light continuum with the ps pulses of Nd+3:YAG laser in a thick BBO crystal Optics Communications Volume 278, Issue 1, 1 October 2007, Pages 175-179 |
| 210 nm ultraviolet generation using blue-violet laser diode and BBO SHG crystal CLEO/Pacific Rim 2003. The 5th Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8671) |
| Observation of second harmonic generations from x-cut BBO whispering gallery mode resonators IEEE Photonics Conference 2012 |
| 1.3 Waverage power at 255 nm by second harmonic generation in BBO pumped by a copper HyBrID laser Optics Communications Volume 132, Issues 3–4, 1 December 1996, Pages 302-306 |
| Beta barium borate (BBO) Appl. Phys. A 52, 359-368 (1991) |
| Reduction of the spectral width and beam divergence of a BBO-OPO by using collinear type-II phase matching and back reflection of the pump beam Appl Phys B (2012) 108:283–288 DOI 10.1007/s00340-012-5036-3 |
| Generation of femtosecond tunable radiation from 380 nm to 450 nm via cascaded wave-mixing in a seeded 405-nm pumped type-I BBO noncollinear optical parametric amplifier CLEO/Pacific Rim 2003. The 5th Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8671) |
| Harmonic and sum-frequency generation of pulsed laser radiation in BBO, LBO, and KDP Appl.Phys.B86,275–278(2007) |
| Detection of ∼1 atto-joule signal pulse at 532 nm using a picosecond collinear BBO optical parametric amplifier Optics Communications Volume 291, 15 March 2013, Pages 329-333 |
| Efficient generation of tunable VUV laser radiation below 205 nm by SFM in BBO Appl. Phys. B 55, 419-423 (1992) |
| Femtosecond noncollinear and collinear parametric generation and amplification in BBO crystal Appl. Phys. B 70, 163–168 (2000) / Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1007/s003409900108 |
| Highly efficient deep ultraviolet generation by sum-frequency mixing in a BBO crystal pair Indian Academy of Sciences |
| Direct evidence of the noninstantaneous response of n/sub 2/ induced by cascading phenomena during SHG of femtosecond pulses in a BBO crystal Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2003. CLEO ’03 |
| Efficient broadband 400 nm noncollinear second harmonic generation of chirped femtosecond laser pulses in BBO and LBO 2013 Conference on Lasers & Electro-Optics Europe & International Quantum Electronics Conference CLEO EUROPE/IQEC |
