Impurities in nonlinear optical oxide crystals

Abstract

Impurities in nonlinear optical oxide crystals can affect many of the properties for device applications. The structures of typical crystals are tolerant with respect to occupancy and are nonstoichiometric on the cation sublattices (e.g. the A sublattice in crystals with the general formula AMO 3). This may, at least in part, be due to the presence of the relatively strong covalent nature of the acentric oxide groups determining the nonlinear optical properties. These circumstances make the incorporation of impurities into the lattice relatively easy and result in large distribution coefficients for many impurities. Generally, little purification during growth will occur with respect to these impurities and therefore, it is usually necessary to purify the starting materials of any unwanted ions. Chemical or powder processing and firing procedures can be used to prevent any contamination of the crystal growth precursors by common impurities (e.g. Si, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, K, Mg, Cl, and S) at a level of <10 parts per million total concentration. A combination of analytical techniques, including those which require little or no sample preparation (e.g. secondary ion mass spectrometry, neutron activation analysis, or laser microprobe mass spectrometry), should be used to determine the impurities present in a material. For example, the effects of protons incorporated (OH -) in the lattice of these crystals can be very detrimental and can be detected using infrared spectroscopy. The growth of many of these crystals requires flux techniques, but the temperature dependence of any nonstoichiometry present and of the distribution coefficients make the use of slow cooling techniques generally not recommended when uniformity of properties is required.