Study of the electrical-conductivity kinetics of KTP crystals used in the modulators of solid-state lasers

Abstract

This paper presents the results of studies of the kinetics of the conduction current in the pulsed regime of high-resistance KTP crystals with electrical resistivity 1 5 × 10 10 Ω cm, grown from solutions in a phosphate melt by a modified Czochralski method. It is established that, when the electric field is switched on, there is slow growth of the conduction-current pulse, whose leading edge is about 5.2 ms wide. In the electrooptic modulators of Nd:YAG lasers controlled by a driver with pulsed bias, the bias-pulse width usually lies in the range 50-300 μs. The conduction current through high-resistance KTP crystals does not exceed 100 nA in such a regime, and, as shown by our experiments on lifetime, there are virtually no limits on the use of modulators based on KTP crystals associated with their electrochromic degradation.

Optical Properties of KTP Crystals and Their Potential for Terahertz Generation

“…Parametric generation based on stimulated polariton scattering in KTP shows superior performance in terms of gain and laser damage resistance in comparison to lithium niobate and lithium tantalate [10,11]. Other KTP applications include modulators for the near-and the mid-IR ranges [12][13][14].…”

Picosecond Pulsed-Periodic High-Peak Power Nd:YAG Laser Operationally Controlled by KTP-Based Pockels Cell

“…Crystals of the KTP family (KTP and RTP are widely used) meet the basic requirements for advanced electro-optical materials and are characterized by a unique combination of physical parameters that are needed for highly effective electro-optical modulation performance [45]: low absorptivity at the laser wavelength, high damage threshold, low piezoelectric coupling of the electric field to acoustics and relatively large electro-optical coefficients. In fact, they outperform most other electro-optical crystals by the combination of their characteristics [46][47][48][49][50][51].…”