Lithium Triborate, LiB3O5, or LBO-- all the same to me, but let's be friends, just call me LBO. I am an outstanding crystal for nonlinear optics, the best of my type. But why am I special, so special? It probably has something to do with the lithium. And, GAMDAN Optics has the best performing LBOs, period.

The details of a coating design involve the thickness and material choice for each coating layer.  This affects the optical field intensity distribution within the coating, and that affects the laser induced damage threshold (LiDT).  The choice of coating materials also affects the thermal expansion mismatch between the coating and the substrate, a factor that affects coating adhesion and coating cracking or crazing.

This article will concentrate on coatings applied by vacuum deposition, which gives durable reliable coatings. There are other techniques for reducing surface reflectivity such as sol-gel coatings or nano-structured surfaces.

Before light sources with considerable coherence length were available (think lasers), opticians formed fringe patterns using a test plate, also known as an optical flat.  Spherical test plates also exist, to check the surface of lenses, or curved mirrors.  These test plates could be placed in close proximity to each other, so common light sources could be used.

A practical way to generate UV light is by converting more easily obtained infrared or visible laser beams into the UV light using nonlinear optics--harmonic generation processes in crystals.   This works well for producing light in nearly all of the UV A range (315 nm – 400 nm), the longest of the UV wavelengths.  There are several crystals that can do this job... 

A perfectly generated wave may be plano or spherical.  What happens to it as it travels may alter that perfect shape.  This circumstance is called wavefront distortion. 

Tight control of crystal growth, sophisticated selection of material, near compulsive attention to detail in manufacturing and polishing combine with discriminating inspection practices to ensure that GAMDAN Optics products are free of transmissive wavefront errors. 

Contamination can find its way onto all types of optics.  UV light is generally more likely to break molecular bonds and cause damage than visible or infrared light.   Contamination can make a good optic appear to have a low threshold for laser induced damage.   Here we’ll explain a few types of contamination, and we’ll show what can be done to prevent contamination on UV optics.  

Can the second harmonic generation be done efficiently with the right amount of peak power?  In this article we will analyze what happens with lower peak power.  For example, what if we run the same laser continuously (CW), so the average power might still be one Watt, but the peak power is now also now only one Watt.  Can we efficiently generate the second harmonic of that CW beam?  Read more and explore SGH with us…