Doubling crystal question

[Phat Photons]

Hi,

I'm interested in doubling a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser for some micro-machining. Can anyone give me some advise on selecting a crystal or point me towards some good references?

I would like to double a SSY1 and possibly a Laservall EUMarker (passively Q-switched, ~20KHZ, 9ns pulse, 28KW peak, 5W avg)

Thanks,
Ed

[mixedgas]

KTP or LBO or BBO, The later two get more power and can handle more power, but need housed carefully.

KTP for pulsing is phase matched (angle of cut) a bit differently then for small CW DPSS lasers, but DPSS crystals will work. Beam doubling crystals for pulsed are usually much larger and the beam is not focused in the crystal, doubling is power dependent, if you have huge peak powers, doubling is easier.

Steve

[Phat Photons]

LBO is looking good for a number of reasons. I find this info cloned at various sites:
http://www.u-oplaz.com/crystals/crystals03.htm

They give angle tuning curves for room temp and and temperature tuning curves for non-critical phase matching.

It would be nice to see a family of curves for angle with lines for different temperatures. There seem to be a lot of crystals on ebay that are cut with theta=42.3 phi=90. Am I correct in assuming this is a type II intended to be heated for 1064nm doubling?

[mixedgas]

LBO is looking good for a number of reasons. I find this info cloned at various sites:
http://www.u-oplaz.com/crystals/crystals03.htm

They give angle tuning curves for room temp and and temperature tuning curves for non-critical phase matching.

It would be nice to see a family of curves for angle with lines for different temperatures. There seem to be a lot of crystals on ebay that are cut with theta=42.3 phi=90. Am I correct in assuming this is a type II intended to be heated for 1064nm doubling?

Yep. Although I'd ask when ordering a given crystal. Type II is quite tunable with angle, although the accuracy in positioning required is higher. If you can hold temp within +/- .1'C its overkill.

Steve