Orthorhombic ferroelectric and ferroelastic Gd-2(MoO4)(3) crystal - A new many-purposed nonlinear and optical material: Efficient multiple stimulated Raman scattering and CW and tunable second harmonic generation

The nonlinear optical properties of a ferroelectric and ferroelastic beta'-Gd-2(MoO4)(3) laser crystal-host were studied by second harmonic generation (SHG) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) experiments using different laser sources for excitation. It is shown that the investigated crystals are very attractive for SHG with IR CW lasers as well as for continuously tunable SHG under illumination with a femtosecond hyper-continuum light source. Furthermore, up to five Stokes and five anti-Stokes lines have been obtained in picosecond SRS experiments with a total conversion efficiency of about 70%. Interaction of SHG and SRS, as well as a new effect, which may be called quasi-hyper SRS, have been observed with insulating crystal for the first time. We classify the beta'-Gd-2(MoO4)(3):Nd as a promising laser medium for pulsed and CW self-frequency doubling lasers.