Birefringent Crystalsal
(a-BBO , YVO4)

Birefringent Crystalsal

v YVO₄
va-BBO
vCalcite Crystal

The yttrium orthovanadate (YVO4) is a positive uniaxial crystal grown with Czochralski method. It has good mechanical and physical properties and is ideal for optical polarizing components because of its wide transparency range and large birefringence. It is an excellent synthetic substitute for Calcite (CaCO3) and Rutile (TiO2) crystals in many applications including fiber optic isolators and circulators, beam displacers, Glan polarizers and other polarizing optics, etc.

Basic Properties of YVO4 crystals

Comparation with other Birefringent crystals

tCompared to Calcite, YVO4 has better temperature stability and physical and mechnical properties. Calcite is hard to obtain high optical quality because of its low susceptibility to moisture and low hardness.
tCompared to Rutile (TiO2) which exhibits too high hardness, YVO4 is easier to be handled for optical surface processing that greatly reduces cost of fabrication, especially for batch production.
tCompared to LiNbO3, although they have similar mechanical and physical properties, YVO4 has more than three times larger birefringence, that makes your design more compact.

Applications of YVO4 Crystals

           Following drawings are the simple demonstrations of how the YVO4 crystals are used in Fiber Optic Isolator, Beam Displacers and Circulators.

CASIX unique advantages:

lReliable OEM supplier: CASIX has the largest production line of YVO4 crystals in the world. We have capacity to fabricate up to 10,000 pieces of YVO4 components per month.
lStrong Technical Support: From crystals growth and fabrication to fiber optics design and applications, CASIX engineers always provide professional solution to customers. Come to CASIX, let our expertise serves you better.
lQuick Delivery: We offer a series of standard YVO4 components which are commonly used in fiber optics (see the next page). They are available off-the-shelf.
lSpecial Products: Custom-made YVO4 components are welcome.

1. Birefringent Wedges for Fiber-Optic Isolators

   Specifications

Standard Size

Note: Other sizes and Coating are available upon request

2. YVO4 Beam Displacer

Specifications

Note: Other sizes and specifications are available upon request

Standard Size

          High Temperature form BBO (a-BaB2O4) is a negative uniaxial crystal. It has large birefringence over the broad transparent range from 189 nm to 3500 nm. Recently, CASIX has succeeded in growing this crystal into large size. The physical, chemical, thermal and optical properties of a-BBO crystal are similar to those of b-BBO. However, the nonlinear optical properties of a-BBO crystal is vanished due to the centric symmetry with its crystal structure. It is not recommended to use for NLO processes.

       a -BBO is an excellent crystal to replace Calcite, TiO2, and LiNbO3, etc. in Glan-Taylor and Glan-Thompson polarizers as well as walk-off beam splitters, especially for high power and UV polarizer, due to its unique UV transparency, good mechanical properties and high damage threshold. CASIX manufactures and supplies Glan-Laser, Glan-Taylor, Glan-Thompson Polarizers and other beam displacers from high quality a-BBO crystals to replace Calcite in many applications, especially in UV and high power operations.

1. Basic Properties of a-BBO

2. Specifications of a-BBO

3. Applications of a-BBO

          Calcite is a negative uniaxial crystal that has high birefringence, wide spectral transmission and availability in reasonably sized rhombs. Although is a fairly soft crystal and is easily scratched, it is ideal material used as visible and near IR polarizers, such as Glan Taylor, Glan Thompson and Glan laser.

        'CASIX selects carefully the raw calcite crystals by inspecting them with a cw green laser beam. We have perfected a number of proprietary processes for cutting, grinding and polishing good quality optical surfaces for calcite prism. These skills are evident in the high quality of the finished components, and enable polarizers to be used with very high peak power lasers.

Basic Properties of Calcite crystals

Specifications

Copyright  1998 CASIX, Inc. All rights reserved. Last Revised: May 19, 1999
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