Abstract

A broad survey of acentric nitrate salts has led to the discovery of two new compounds with large second-harmonic generating efficiencies,^1,2 potassium lanthanum nitrate dihydrate (KLN) and its cerium analog (KCN). These water soluble, isostmctural, orthorhombic (point symmetry mm2) crystals possess a rather rare attribute: not only do they have much larger nonlinear coefficients than KDP, but they are nearly noncritically phase-matched at room temperature for Type I frequency-doubling of 1.064 μm light and for Type II doubling of light near 0.95 μm.

© 1992 Optical Society of America