Efficient third harmonic generation of microjoule picosecond pulses at 355nm in BiB3O6

The authors report efficient third harmonic generation of microjoule picosecond pulses at 355nm in the nonlinear optical material BiB3O6. Using two crystals of BiB3O6 cut for type I (e+e→o) phase matching in optical yz plane for second and third harmonic generation and fundamental pulses from a mode-locked, amplified picosecond Nd:YAG laser at 1.064μm, they have achieved conversion efficiencies of as much as 50% at 355nm. Third harmonic pulse energies of up to 216μJ in 29ps pulses at 25Hz repetition rate have been obtained for 35ps fundamental pulses. They have also determined the magnitude of two-photon absorption coefficient in BiB3O6 at 355nm to be 0.71 and 1.37cm∕GW for ordinary and extraordinary polarizations, respectively.