High Damage Threshold Research Articles

Resonant Second Harmonic Generation in Proline Hybrid Lead Halide Perovskites

AbstractChiral hybrid organic−inorganic perovskites (HOIPs) with intrinsic noncentrosymmetry have shown great potentials for chiroptoelectronic applications including second‐order nonlinear optics (NLO). Ideal NLO materials should simultaneously feature a large NLO coefficient, wide optical transparency, high laser damage threshold, and physicochemical stability. However, the development of applicable second‐order NLO materials has been largely restricted due to their strict requirement on structural noncentrosymmetry. Here, chiral amino acids abundant in nature have been adopted to synthesize hybrid lead halide perovskites (D‐/L‐Pro)PbI3·H2O (Pro = Proline) with resonance enhanced second‐harmonic generation (SHG). Their crystals feature balanced NLO performances with a large NLO coefficient, wide transparent region, high laser damage threshold, and high polarization ratio. This work demonstrates the promise of naturally abundant amino acids for the construction of hybrid chiral metal halide perovskites for next generation optoelectronic materials.

Terahertz Wave Propagation Characteristics in Graded Teflon Based Solid-Core Photonic Crystal Fibre

In the past few years, photonic crystal fibre (PCF) in the Terahertz spectrum is drawing significant attention because of its multifaceted applications in high-speed data communication, spectroscopy, sensing, etc. The proposed PCF structure is based on a Teflon solid core surrounded by porous cladding. Teflon has been used as a background material because of its high flexibility and the possibility of making longer PCFs, which is capable of guiding waves in the THz region. The porous cladding consists of circular air-holes positioned hexagonally whose diameters increase with each subsequent layer keeping the pitch constant thus providing a graded-index profile. The diameters of air holes in each hexagonal layer are 1 mm, 1.2 mm and 1.5 mm respectively, maintaining a constant pitch of 2mm and a perfectly matched layer (PML) thickness of 3mm. We have examined the transmission characteristics of the proposed profile in the frequency range of 0.8 THz to 2.5 THz. The modal solution of the profile is solved using the Finite Element Method based on COMSOL Multiphysics version 5.5. Using the graded-index profile, we have obtained a large effective modal area of around 5.6 mm2 at 1 THz and a low confinement loss of 2.25 × 10−4 dB/km at the same frequency. Due to this large effective modal area, we get higher damage threshold and weaker non-linear effects, making it suitable for high power applications.

Mechanism of polishing lutetium oxide single crystals with polyhedral diamond abrasive grains based on molecular dynamics simulation

Lutetium oxide single crystal is an excellent laser crystal material with the advantages of low phonon energy, high thermal conductivity, and high laser-induced damage threshold. Polishing is an important method to achieve ultrasmooth, damage-free surfaces of lutetium oxide wafers. The diamond abrasive grains used in mechanical polishing are mainly in the form of blocks, flakes, and balls. In this study, the molecular dynamics simulation method is used to simulate the process of polishing a lutetium oxide single crystal with different shapes of polyhedral diamond abrasive grains, and the polishing force, subsurface damage, and material removal are analyzed. Results show that the compressive stress and thickness of the machined amorphous layer in the subsurface are minimum at the vertex contact position and maximum at the face contact position. The values at the sphere and edge contact positions are somewhere in between. In terms of material removal, polyhedral and spherical abrasive grains have a plowing effect on the material removal process. However, the vertices and edges of polyhedral abrasive grains can be more easily cut into the workpiece than spherical abrasive grains, so polyhedral abrasive grains are conducive to the removal of materials in specific cases.

Accelerating superluminal laser focus generated by a long-focal-depth mirror with high numerical aperture.

The long-focal-depth mirror is a novel reflective element proposed in recent years. Due to the advantages of negligible dependence on wavelength and high damage threshold, it is suitable to focus ultra-short laser pulses with broadband spectra and high intensity with a focal depth of centimeter scale. To the best of our knowledge, the focusing properties of this mirror has been only studied under low numerical aperture (NA). In this paper, we extend it to the case of high NA and it is proved that an accelerating superluminal laser focus can be always generated by this extension, in which the degree of acceleration increases with the increase of NA. And the velocity of laser focus increases approximately linearly from c to 1.6c for NA = 0.707. Due to its properties of tight focusing, the Richards-Wolf integrals have been used to study the intensity distribution of each polarization component for different kinds of incident light. And these are linearly polarized light, radially polarized light, azimuthally polarized light, linearly polarized light with spiral phase, and linearly polarized light with ultrashort pulses. From comparisons of numerical results, the intensity distributions are obviously different for different kind of incident light, and accelerating superluminal laser focus with special structure (such as the hollow conical beam) can be produced under appropriate condition. We believe this study can expand the fields of application for the long-focal-depth mirror.

K2CdGe3S8: A New Infrared Nonlinear Optical Sulfide

A quaternary metal chalcogenide, namely K2CdGe3S8 (I), is obtained through a high-temperature solid-state approach. Compound I crystallizes with the non-centrosymmetric space group P212121. It features a 2D layer structure with [CdGe3S8] layers consisting of tetrahedral GeS4 and CdS4 units, and counter K+ embedded between the layers. The compound exhibits a powder second-harmonic generation (SHG) response of ~0.1 times that of KH2PO4 (KDP) with phase-matchable character at the laser wavelength of 1064 nm. Remarkably, it has a wide band gap (3.20 eV), which corresponds to a favorable high laser-induced damage threshold of 6.7 times that of AgGaS2. In addition, the calculated birefringence (Δn) is 0.039 at the wavelength of 1064 nm, which satisfies the Δn criteria for a promising infrared NLO material.

High-power mid-infrared ZGP optical parametric oscillator directly pumped by pulsed Tm:YLF laser at 1908 nm

This paper presents the first demonstration of a mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator (MIR OPO) based on ZGP crystal which was directly pumped by an acousto-optical Q-switched Tm:YLF laser at 1.908 μm. Profited from the improved quality of ZGP crystal with low absorption coefficient (<0.04 cm−1) and high laser-induced damage threshold (>3 J/cm2) at 1.908 μm, output power of 17.8 W for both the 3.53 μm signal and 4.15 μm idler lasers was achieved when the double-pump-pass, doubly-resonated ZGP OPO was pumped at 28.6 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power and efficiency for any kind of Tm-laser directly-pumped OPOs.

Highly Anisotropic Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Effects in the Chiral Lead-Free Perovskite Spiral Microplates

Chiral metal halide perovskites with intrinsic asymmetric structures have drawn increased research interest for the application of second-order nonlinear optics (NLO). However, designing chiral perovskites with the features of a large NLO coefficient, high laser-induced damage thresholds (LDT), and environmental friendliness remains a major challenge. Herein, we have synthesized two chiral hybrid bismuth halides: (R/S-MBA)4Bi2Br10 spiral structure microplates, templated by chiral (R/S)-methylbenzylamine (R/S-MBA). The as-grown chiral lead-free perovskite spiral microplates exhibit a recorded second harmonic generation (SHG) effect with a large effective second-order NLO coefficient (deff) of 11.9 pm V-1 and a high LDT of up to 59.2 mJ cm-2. More importantly, the twisted screw structures show competitive circular polarization sensitivity at 1200 nm with an anisotropy factor (gSHG-CD) of 0.58, which is about 3 times higher than that of reported Pb-based chiral perovskites. These findings provide a new platform to design multifunctional lead-free chiral perovskites for nonlinear photonic applications.

Using an acousto-optic modulator as a fast spatial light modulator.

High-speed spatial light modulators (SLM) are crucial components for free-space communication and structured illumination imaging. Current approaches for dynamical spatial mode generation, such as liquid crystal SLMs or digital micromirror devices, are limited to a maximum pattern refresh rate of 10 kHz and have a low damage threshold. We demonstrate that arbitrary spatial profiles in a laser pulse can be generated by mapping the temporal radio-frequency (RF) waveform sent to an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) onto the optical field. We find that the fidelity of the SLM performance can be improved through numerical optimization of the RF waveform to overcome the nonlinear effect of AOM. An AOM can thus be used as a 1-dimensional SLM, a technique we call acousto-optic spatial light modulator (AO-SLM), which has 50 µm pixel pitch, over 1 MHz update rate, and high damage threshold. We simulate the application of AO-SLM to single-pixel imaging, which can reconstruct a 32×32 pixel complex object at a rate of 11.6 kHz with 98% fidelity.

Review of preparation methods of laser films with high damage threshold

Review of preparation methods of laser films with high damage threshold

Open honeycomb frameworks of sulphides AHg4Ga5S12 (A = Rb, Cs) exhibiting infrared nonlinear optical properties.

A crystal structure with a diamond-like anionic framework belongs to a non-centrosymmetric macrostructure due to the aligned arrangement of tetrahedral units, meeting the premise of second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. Herein, two new Hg-based sulphides, namely RbHg4Ga5S12 (1) and CsHg4Ga5S12 (2), which are isostructural and crystallise in the trigonal space group R3, are successfully isolated in sealed silica tubes by a solid-state reaction. The features of their three-dimensional open honeycomb frameworks are attributed to the parallel alignment of tetrahedral MS4 (M is disordered by 0.444 Hg and 0.555 Ga) building motifs, accompanied by Rb+ (or Cs+) reseating in the cavities. Notably, although the band gap values of 1 and 2 are 2.30 and 2.36 eV, separately, their thermal expansion anisotropies (0.15 and 0.41, respectively) are favourable for achieving laser-induced damage thresholds (5.6 and 5.8 times that of AgGaS2 for 1 and 2, respectively). In addition, the strong polarisability of tetrahedral MS4 building motifs in the diamond-like anionic structures is responsible for the promising second-harmonic generation (SHG) intensities (1.1 and 1.8 times that of AgGaS2 for 1 and 2, respectively) in the particle size range of 50-75 μm with non-phase-matchable behaviour at 1910 nm. Furthermore, theoretical investigation elaborates that electron transitions in compounds 1 and 2 mainly occur from valence band S-3p to conduction band Hg-6s and Ga-4s states, demonstrating that the linear and nonlinear optical properties originate primarily from the synergy of tetrahedral MS4 units.

AIn3Si4P9 (A = Ca, Sr): quaternary phosphides with double-helix structures exhibiting high laser-induced damage thresholds

Two novel quaternary nonlinear optical phosphides AIn3Si4P9 (A = Ca, Sr) with a unique double-helix structure are reported for the first time, resulting in a high laser-induced damage threshold, ∼7 times that of benchmark AgGaS2.

The first quaternary rare-earth oxythiogermanate with second-harmonic generation and ferromagnetic behavior.

The discovery of new functional materials is attractive since they have the opportunity to change some important fields. Of these materials, oxychalcogenides constitute an increasing type of nonlinear optical (NLO) material. Herein, a new rare-earth oxythiogermanate Eu3GeOS4 crystallizing with a polar orthorhombic Pca21 structure is studied. Its three-dimensional structure is constructed from unique [EuOS6] monocapped trigonal prisms and isolated [GeOS3] tetrahedra, featuring a new type of oxysulfides. Its band gap is 2.05 eV, and it exhibits obvious second-harmonic generation (SHG) response and high laser-induced damage threshold. In addition, Eu3GeOS4 exhibits Curie-Weiss ferromagnetic behavior in the high-temperature region. The SHG effect is ascribed to the synergistic effect of [EuOS6] and [GeOS3] units based on theoretical calculation results. This work is the first investigation of quaternary rare-earth oxythiogermanates as NLO materials.

Research on post-processing polishing technology of pulse compression gratings with high laser damage threshold

Research on post-processing polishing technology of pulse compression gratings with high laser damage threshold

Laser-based defect characterization and removal process for manufacturing fused silica optic with high ultraviolet laser damage threshold

Laser-based defect characterization and removal process for manufacturing fused silica optic with high ultraviolet laser damage threshold

High-Order Bessel Beam Generator with High Laser-Induced Damage Threshold Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser

High-Order Bessel Beam Generator with High Laser-Induced Damage Threshold Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser

D6versus d10, Which Is Better for Second Harmonic Generation Susceptibility? A Case Study of K2TGe3Ch8 (T = Fe, Cd; Ch = S, Se)

Two acentric chalcogenide compounds, K2CdGe3S8 and K2CdGe3Se8, were synthesized via conventional high-temperature solid-state reactions. The crystal structures of K2CdGe3S8 and K2CdGe3Se8 were accurately determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and crystallize in the K2FeGe3S8 structure type. K2CdGe3S8 is isostructural to K2FeGe3S8 with superior nonlinear optical properties. For the second harmonic generation (SHG) response, K2CdGe3S8 is 18× K2FeGe3S8 for samples of particle size of 38-55 μm. The superior nonlinear optical properties of K2CdGe3S8 over K2FeGe3S8 are mainly contributed by the chemical characteristics of Cd compared with Fe, which are elucidated by nonlinear optical property measurements, electronic structure calculations, and density functional theory calculations. The [CdS4] tetrahedra within K2CdGe3S8 exhibit a higher degree of distortion and larger volume compared to the [FeS4] tetrahedra in K2FeGe3S8. This study possesses a good platform to investigate how d-block elements contribute to the SHG response. The fully occupied d10-elements are better for SHG susceptibility than d6-elements in this study. K2CdGe3S8 is a good candidate as an infrared nonlinear optical material of high SHG response (2.1× AgGaS2, samples of particle size of 200-250 μm), type-I phase-matching capability, high laser damage threshold (6.2× AgGaS2), and good stability.

Study of ruthenium film grown in oxygen environment for x-ray optics application

Ru shows high damage threshold as compared to other standard materials Au, Rh and Pt for high heat load applications in high brilliance synchrotron radiation source and x-ray free electron laser. It is also a promising candidate to be used as a protective capping layer in multilayers for increasing their life time. In the present study, Ru thin films of 500Å thickness were deposited in oxygen environment at different substrate temperatures varying from 70°C to 500°C. In reactive ion beam sputtering process, the flow of Ar and reactive O2 gas was maintained in 4:1 ratio keeping total flow 3 SCCM constant. The deposited films were characterized using grazing incidence x-ray reflectivity (GIXRR), grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) techniques. A significant change in GIXRR profile was observed in the sample grown at 100°C and 500°C whereas the GIXRD measurements indicated no significant formation of ruthenium oxide at different temperatures. However, a strong peak of Ru2Si3 (222) at 500°C was observed indicating a strong interfacial reaction at ruthenium/ substrate interface.The experimental data suggested a weak signature of RuO2 phase in the films deposited at RT, 70°C and 100°C and therefore the effect of ruthenium oxide with 10% composition in pure ruthenium was calculated on optical performance in extreme ultra violet region of photon energy (85-115 eV).

A Dichroic Beamsplitter for the Laser Protection of Infrared Detectors

The design and fabrication approach of a dichroic beamsplitter to meet the protection requirements of infrared detectors for blinding laser weapons is presented. The dichroic beamsplitter must protect against 1064 and 532 nm lasers and have high transmittance in the detection beam band of 3.6–4.7 µm. In order to realize the protection and antireflection (AR) functions of the dichroic beamsplitter, Ta2O5, which has a wide band gap and high thermodynamic stability, was selected as the high-refractive-index material. A multilayer stack was deposited on a silicon substrate by ion-assisted electron beam evaporation. The manufactured dichroic beamsplitter features a high laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT), excellent spectral characteristics in the requested spectral region, and good environmental stability.

AIB3IIC3IIIQ8VI: A New Family for the Design of Infrared Nonlinear Optical Materials by Coupling Octahedra and Tetrahedra Units.

Large second-harmonic generation (SHG) response and broad band gap are two important and competitive parameters. It is difficult to balance them out in one material. In this work, by coupling alkali earth metal (AEM) octahedra with large highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO)-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) gap and nonlinear optical (NLO)-active tetrahedra units, nine noncentrosymmetric (NCS) compounds, belonging to a new quaternary chalcogenide family AIB3IIC3IIIQ8VI with unique windmill-like [Mg3M3IIIQ24] (MIII = Al, Ga; Q = S, Se) units constructed by alternated [MgQ6] octahedra and [MIIIQ4] tetrahedra, are rationally designed and fabricated. The compounds show a stable structural framework but adjustable optical properties. Among them, NaMg3Ga3Se8 shows a large SHG response (∼1 × AgGaS2 (AGS)), wide band gap (in selenide) (2.77 eV), high laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) (∼2.3 × AGS), and suitable birefringence (0.079@546 nm). It should be a potential candidate for infrared (IR) nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. The results enrich the chemical diversity of chalcogenides and open an avenue for the development of new IR NLO materials through the octahedra and tetrahedra coupled strategy.

Effect of doped niobium pentoxide on structure and properties of hafnium oxide films deposited by ion beam assisted deposition

Hafnium oxide is widely used in optical coating materials because of its high refractive index, broad band gap, high laser damage threshold and its high transparency in the wavelength range from ultraviolet to middle infrared (0.20–12 μm). However, hafnium oxide has some defects such as strong crystallinity and poor surface quality, which results in enhanced absorption and reflection of light wave and limits its application in optical field. As a pentoxide with high transparency and excellent optical properties in the wavelength range from ultraviolet to mid-infrared(0.35–9 μm), the doping of niobium pentoxide can effectively improve the surface quality and optical properties of the films. Mixed films with different chemical compositions were prepared by ion beam assisted deposition, and the microstructure, crystallinity, surface quality, optical properties and mechanical properties of the mixed films with different chemical compositions were investigated. The doping of niobium pentoxide inhibits the crystallization of hafnium oxide, optimizes the surface quality of the films, and improves the refractive index and mechanical properties of mixed films, effectively broadens the application of hafnium oxide in the field of optical films.