BBO sapphire compound for high-power frequency conversion

Lasers used for diverse applications from industry to fundamental science tend to increasing output powers. Some applications require frequency conversion via nonlinear optical crystals, which suffer from the formation of temperature gradients at high power operation which causes thermal lensing or destruction of the crystal due to tensile stresses. To avoid these unwanted effects we joined a beta barium borate (BBO) crystal with sapphire disks serving as effective heat spreaders due to their high thermal conductivity (thermal conductivity ? = 42 W/Km). Therefore, smooth and flat crystal surfaces were joined by plasma-activated bonding. The joining relies on covalent bonds, which are formed via a condensation reaction of the surfaces which are first connected by Van der Waals forces. The cleaned surfaces are activated by plasma and brought into contact, pressed together and heat treated at a temperature of about 100°C. Special attention has been paid to the cleaning of the surfaces. Therefor the surfaces have been evaluated before and after treatment by means of atomic force microscopy. A stable connection has been formed successfully, which has been tested in a proof of principle experiment and demonstrated efficient second harmonic generation at up to 253 W of input power. Compared to a bare single BBO crystal it could be shown that the temperature within the crystal compound is significantly reduced. Such hybrid structures pave the way for frequency conversion at kilowatts of average power for future high power lasers.