Defect structure and optical damage resistance of Zr:Ce:Fe:LiNbO₃crystals

Abstract

The congruent Zr:Ce:Fe:LiNbO 3 crystals have been grown by the Czochralski method with fixed concentrations of CeO 2 and Fe 2 O 3 and various concentrations of ZrO 2 . The Ultraviolet(UV)-Visible(Vis) absorption spectra were measured in order to investigate their defect structures and their optical damage resistance was characterized by the transmission light spot distortion method. The results show that the optical damage resistance of the Zr:Ce:Fe:LiNbO 3 crystals improves with the doping concentration of ZrO 2 increasing. The dependence of the optical damage resistance on the defect structure of Zr:Ce:Fe:LiNbO 3 crystals was discussed.