电光调Q晶体研究进展

Progress on electro-optic crystals for Q-switches

电光调Q激光系统由于峰值功率高,在医疗、美容、测量、加工以及军工等领域得到了广泛应用,而电光调Q晶体是获得高峰值功率激光脉冲输出的核心光电材料,随着短脉冲、高重率、大功率激光系统的应用需求发展和技术进步,对电光调Q晶体的性能要求也不断提高.本文对目前常用的电光调Q晶体的基本特性、晶体制备技术和电光调Q应用技术等研究进展进行了综述,主要包括铌酸锂晶体、磷酸二氘钾晶体、低温相偏硼酸钡晶体、磷酸氧钛铷晶体和硅酸镓镧晶体等,认为实用化的电光调Q晶体材料研究和开发工作亟待突破,在相当长一段时期内,电光系数高、激光损伤阈值高、性能稳定、温度适用性高和成本低的电光晶体材料探索仍然是晶体材料研究领域的重要课题.

Electro-optic Q-switched laser systems with high peak power have been widely applied in medical, cosmetology, measurement,processing, military industry, and other fields, while the crystal for electro-optic Q-switch is the core optoelectronic material for outputting high peak power pulse laser. With the technological progress and the development of short pulse, high repeat frequency and high power laser system application, the performance of crystals for electro-optic Q-switch is constantly improved. The paper reviews the research progress on basic characteristics, crystal preparation technology and electro-optic Q-switch application technology of several important electro-optic crystals for Q-switches including lithium niobate（LN） crystal, deuterated potassium dihydrogen phosphate（DKDP） crystal, low temperature phase barium metaborate（BBO） crystal, rubidium oxygen titanium phosphate（RTP）crystal, langasite（LGS） crystal and potassium titanium oxide phosphate（KTP） crystal, and propose that the research on practical electro-optic crystals for Q-switches is urgent to make breakthroughs. For a long time to come, exploring the electro-optic crystal materials, with high electro-optic coefficient, high laser damage threshold, stable performance, high temperature applicability and low cost, will be still an important issue in the field of crystal materials research.