Abstract

Naturally disordered ferroelectric domain structure of Strontium Barium Niobate (SBN) crystal allows to phase-match any second-order parametric processes such as second-harmonic generation (SHG) over practically the whole range of the crystals transparency window [1]. This property is particularly relevant in the context of ultra-short pulses where a constant efficiency of the nonlinear process over the full pulse spectra is required [2]. In naturally grown SBN this can be achieved without the need of poling or temperature tuning. Moreover, beam alignment in the crystal is very uncritical, an aspect of special importance for many technical applications.

© 2007 IEEE