Processing of a new nonlinear optical crystal for continuous wave UV-laser applications

Lasers have been known for a long time and are used in a wide variety of fields such as industrial and material processing or measuring and control technology. A new application is being tested which aims to use continuous wave UV-lasers in metrology. For this application a nonlinear optical crystal is needed. Its processing is developed in a two-year project at the Institute for Precision Manufacturing and High-Frequency Technology of Deggendorf Institute of Technology. The crucial factor for the full optical performance in the UV range is the low roughness of the crystal surface, as it is installed between two prisms and the contactability between them should be ensured. In China, a nonlinear crystal that meets the requirements has already been designed and a production process for the raw crystal has been established. However, since the production of optically homogenous crystals has proven to be difficult, the availability of such is very limited. For this reason, a reference material with similar hardness and material behaviour is used in the process development in order not to be limited in the number of trials. It is important to be able to transfer the results from the reference material in an analogous way to the original crystal. One challenge of the project lies in the crystal thickness, since only a maximum thickness of three millimetres can be achieved for the purest form of the crystal required in the application. Therefore, it is important to handle the material sparingly during the process. In addition, the small dimensions of about ten to five millimetres and the brittleness of the material pose a problem. The goal of the project will be to develop a process that can circumvent all these problems so that small roughness of the crystal can be achieved by precision polishing.