Mercury Bromide (HgBr2):: A promising nonlinear optical material in IR region with a high laser damage threshold

Nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals have played a key role in laser technology, and the existing materials for the IR range showed relatively low laser damage threshold in common. A NLO material HgBr2 is presented here. It shows a powder second harmonic generation about ten times as large as that of KH2PO4, a wide transparency in whole mid-IR region (from 2.5 to 25 mu m), and a good stability to the environment. Most importantly it exhibits a high laser damage threshold of about 0.3 GW/cm(2). Therefore, it is believed that HgBr2 is a promising candidate for NLO materials in the IR region. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.