INTRACAVITY 2ND-HARMONIC GENERATION AND INFLUENCE OF OPTICAL LOSS OF ORGANIC NONLINEAR-OPTICAL MATERIALS

We propose two different methods to estimate the optical loss of organic nonlinear optical (NLO) materials, which significantly reduces the efficiency of intracavity second-harmonic generation. One method is the estimation of the optical loss from the intracavity optical power at 1064 nm. The optical loss of the 4-nitrophenol sodium (:Na) salt dihydrate (NPNa) crystal was 1.3 dB/cm. and that of the DNPNa crystal, in which the water of crystallization of NPNa was deuterated, was 0.15 dB/cm. Another method is the estimation of the optical absorption loss from a liquid, the molecular structure of which has the same particular structural groups as those of the organic NLO materials. This latter method is very useful when new organic NLO materials are designed. The optical absorption losses at 1064 nm for the particular structural groups of the benzene ring were found to increase in the following order: -Cl < -NO2 < -CH3 = -OCH3 < -OC2H5 < -NH2.