NSF Award
9361815
9361815 Ruderman Although several organic nonlinear single crystals have been reported to have exceptionally high figures of merit compared with the best inorganic crystals available, organic nonlinear crystals are not now being used in industrial, scientific or defense and aerospace laser systems. We attribute this principally to the lack of a supply of high quality single crystals of a large enough size to be useful. The technology for the growth, fabrication and polishing of organic nonlinear crystals is no now available. The crystal growth techniques reported in the literature for organic nonlinear crystals have been solution and Bridgman and crystal sizes for complex compounds have been of the order of a few mm or less. We propose to develop a Czochralski crystal growth process capable of producing large (2 to 3 cm) crystals of high perfection, to develop methods for fabricating and polishing such crystals and to characterize them with respect to crystal perfection, optical absorption coefficients, laser damage, frequency conversion efficiency and electro-optic properties. MMONS (3-Methyl-4-Methoxy-4'-nitrostilbene) which has been reported to have one of the largest nonlinear figures of merit, will be used as a model crystal and all work will be carried out with this crystal. However, the growth process as well as fabrication techniques that are developed will be applicable to a wide range of organic nonlinear crystals. ***
