LiNbO3 Crystals for E-O Devices

With its large electro-optic coefficients and availability of large and high optical quality crystals, lithium niobate is often the material of choice for optical modulation and Q-switching at near-infrared and infrared wavelengths, especially those involving large beam size and operating at a lower repetition frequency. For Q-switch the crystal can be operated in the configuration with zero residual birefringence and with an electric field that is transverse to the direction of light propagation. The piezoelectric ringing in lithium niobate is a disadvantage, but can be overcome to some extent with proper piezoelectrically damped designs.

Both pure LN and MgO doped LN are available from Newlight Photonics.

Optical properties of LN crystal

Learn more about the Electro-Optic effect

Standard Products

Part No.	Dimension	Cut	End faces	Side	Vπ
EOL00	9x9x25mm	Z-cut	AR@1064nm	Au on X face	2.7kV
EOL01	6x6x25mm	Z-cut	AR@1064nm	Au on X face	1.8kV
EOL00-MgO	9x9x25mm	Z-cut	AR@1064nm	Au on X face	2.7kV
EOL01-MgO	6x6x25mm	Z-cut	AR@1064nm	Au on X face	1.8kV

Specifications of Finished Products

Transmitting wavefront distortion: less than λ/8 @ 633nm
Flatness: λ/8 @ 633nm
Scratch/Dig: 10/5 to MIL-O-13830A
Parallelism: better than 20 arc seconds
Perpendicularity: 5 arc minutes
Angle tolerance:Δθ < +/-0.5o, Δφ < +/-0.5o