Bridgman Growth of New Nonlinear Optical Crystal (La1-xSmx)3Ga5.5Nb0.5O14 for Quasi-Parametric Chirped Pulse Amplification

Samarium-doped La3Nb0.5Ga5.5O14 (Sm:LGN) crystals were grown along a (100)-orientation by the Bridgman method for quasi-parametric chirped pulse amplification (QPCPA) applications. The structure of La(1-x)S(x)mGN (x = 0.1, 0.2) crystals was the same as that of La3Nb0.5Ga5.5O14 (LGN) crystals. The effective segregation coefficient of Sm3+ in the La(0.9)Sm(0.1)GN crystal was 0.140. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of La(1-x)S(x)mGN (x = 0.1,0.2) crystals was lower than 50 '', which indicated the high quality of the crystals. The density of the La(0.9)Sm(0.1)GN crystal was 5.968 g/cm(3) and that of the La(0.8)Sm(0.2)GNcrystal was 5.988 g/cm(3). The transmittance of the crystals at 532 nm and 800 nm was all above 73%. The absorption spectra indicated that the crystals had strong absorption peaks at wavelengths of 1544 and 1595 nm. The thermal properties of La(1-x)S(x)mGN (x = 0.1, 0.2) crystals were similar to those of the LGN crystals. The laser damage thresholds of La(0.9)Sm(0.1)GN and La(0.8)Sm(0.2)GN crystals were, respectively, 188.30 and 54.84 TW/cm(2) (@800 nm,35 fs).