A full breakthrough in vacuum ultraviolet nonlinear optical performance of NH4B4O6F
Abstract
The lack of suitable vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals has hindered the development of compact, high-power VUV sources via second harmonic generation (SHG). Here, we report on the development of the fluorooxoborate crystal NH4B4O6F (ABF) as a promising material for VUV light generation. For the first time, devices with specific phase-matching angles were constructed, achieving a record 158.9 nm VUV light through phase-matching SHG and a maximum nanosecond pulse energy of 4.8 mJ at 177.3 nm with a conversion efficiency of 5.9 %. The enhanced NLO performance is attributed to optimized arrangements of fluorine-based units creating asymmetric sublattices. This work marks a significant milestone in the field of NLO materials, facilitating the future applications of compact, high-power VUV lasers utilizing ABF.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.05019,
title = {A full breakthrough in vacuum ultraviolet nonlinear optical performance of NH4B4O6F},
author = {Fangfang Zhang and Zilong Chen and Chen Cui and Zhihua Yang and Miriding Mutailipu and Fuming Li and Xueling Hou and Xifa Long and Shilie Pan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.05019},
year = {2025}
}