<title>Development of mercurous halide crystals for acousto-optic devices</title>

Abstract

Large crystals of Hg₂Cl₂ and Hg₂Br₂ (48 mm in diameter, up to 600g in weight) have been grown by self-seeded contactless Physical Vapor Transport (PVT) technique in closed ampoules in vertical configuration. Seed selection was accomplished in the small diameter tubing at the ampoule tip. Material purification was done by resublimation processing. The crystals show high transparency, with good transmittance and good crystallographic quality. An acousto-optic modulator built from the Hg₂Cl₂ crystal showed good performance consistent with predicted device parameters.