Crystal growth and frequency conversion of BaMgF4 single crystal by temperature gradient technique

Abstract

The BaMgF4 single crystal was grown by the temperature gradient technique. Highly pure MgF2 and BaF2 powders were used as raw materials and CaF2 single crystal was chosen as a seed to induce BaMgF4 single crystal grow along 〈001〉 orientation. The short cut-off wavelength of BaMgF4 single crystal was determined to be 130nm which is consistent with the previously reported result. We realized second harmonic generation from 1064nm to 532nm laser, and 800nm to 400nm femtosecond laser in single domain BaMgF4 by using birefringent phase matching. 355-nm-wavelength laser was produced by Sum-Frequency Generation from 1064-nm- and 532-nm-wavelength laser, which is the shortest coherent radiation obtained in the UV in the BaMgF4 crystal.