NONLINEAR OPTICAL SUSCEPTIBILITY OF LITHIUM FORMATE MONOHYDRATE

Abstract

Nonlinear optical coefficient, optical transmission, and refractive indices of orthorhombic lithium formate monohydrate single crystals have been measured. The crystals are transparent from 0.25 to about 1.2μm and suffer no optical damage. The SHG can be phase-matched for a large number of fundamental wavelengths in the range of transparency of the material. The phase-matchable nonlinear coefficient d24=d32=3.5× d11α-SiO2. For the 1.064 to 0.532μm conversion, both d24 and d32 are phase-matchable and the conversion efficiency is found to be twice that of LiIO3.