Factory Wholesale α-BBO, β-BBO Crystal

Barium Borate exists in three major crystalline forms: alpha, beta, and gamma. The low-temperature beta phase converts into the alpha phase upon heating to 925 °C. β-BBO differs from α-BBO by the positions of the barium ions within the crystal. Both phases are birefringent, however α-BBO has centric symmetry and thus does not has the same nonlinear properties as β-BBO.

α-BBO is a negative uniaxial crystal with a large birefringence over the broad transparent range from 189 nm to 3500 nm. β-BBO is also a negative uniaxial crystal, which is capable of phase matching for second-order photonic interactions over almost its entire transparency range (from the UV, 185 nm to the Near Infrared, 3.5 µm).

α-BBO  is widely used to make polarizers, polarizing beam displacers, phase retarders, birefringent plates, and time delay compensators especially those for UV and high power lasers.

β-BBO strengths include:

• Wide transmission/transparency range

• Broad phase-matching range

• Large non-linear coefficient

• High damage threshold

• Wide thermal acceptance bandwidth

• Low wavefront distortion

β-BBO applications include:

• Harmonic generation using Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF lasers

• NOPA with femtosecond (fs) pulses

• OPO using Nd:YAG pump

WISOPTIC Standard Specifications - BBO