Abstract
The monoclinic lanthanum calcium borate La
2CaB
10O
19 (LCB) crystal was grown from its stoichiometric melt by the top-seeded pulling method. The unpolarized transmission spectrum of a 1-mm-thick (0
0
1)-cut LCB crystal was measured in the wavelength range of 190–3100
nm. The crystal exhibited a high transmittance (>80%) and a short absorption edge (<190
nm). The phase-matched second-harmonic generation (SHG) properties within the (0
1
0) plane of a 1.7-mm-thick (0
0
1)-cut LCB crystal were studied for the first time with a Spectra-Physics 3900S Ti:sapphire CW tunable laser. The room-temperature phase-matching (PM) wavelength was found to be 869
nm when the light propagation and polarization directions of the fundamental beam were parallel to the [0
0
1] and [0
1
0] axes, respectively. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the wavelength–tuning curve was found to be about 6
nm.The phase-matched SHG of the LCB crystal exhibited a small temperature coefficient of 0.05
nm/°C between 24°C and 150°C and was quite stable for generating visible light upon temperature changes.