Barium-borate (BBO or BaB2O4) has two phases: α phase – high temperature phase β phase – low temperature phase β-barium-borate (BBO) differs from the αbarium-borate by the positions of the barium ions in the crystal. Although both α-BBO and β-BBO phases are birefringent, α-BBO phase has centric symmetry and thus different nonlinear properties in comparison to the β-BBO phase.
Beta-barium-borate (BBO) is a non-linear optical (NLO) crystal with a set of specific features: large non-linear coefficient for ultraviolet (UV), high damage threshold, broad phase matching, low GDD for ultrafast applications and wide transparency range.
BBO crystals are one of the best electro-optical (EO) crystals and TOP tier non-linear optical (NLO) crystals, they are widely used for 2nd – 5th harmonic generations in most popular lasers and optical parametric oscillators (OPO), mostly (but not limited to) Ti:Sapphire, Yb:KGW/KYW laser systems, pockel cells and other applications.
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