The optical properties of benzophenone crystal grown from undercooled melt with oriented growth method

Abstract The optical properties of benzophenone crystal grown from undercooled melt with oriented growth method were experimentally studied. The optical homogeneity of the crystal was detected using a dual interferometer and the results indicated that the major part of the crystal was homogeneous except for the region near the seed crystal. The second harmonic efficiency, which was measured with the outer cavity frequency-doubling method, was up to 65.8%. The laser damage thresholds, which were measured with the single pulse radiation method, were 17.6 and 39.5 GW/cm 2 at the wavelength of 1064 and 532 nm, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the benzophenone crystal grown by oriented growth from undercooled melt is suitable to apply as frequency-doubling device for Nd:YAG laser and as optical modulation device for the wavelength between 380 and 1200 nm.