METHOD OF GROWING LITHIUM TRIBORATE MONOCRYSTALS

FIELD: crystal growing. SUBSTANCE: invention consists in growing nonlinear-optics lithium triborate monocrystal from solution-melt whose composition is determined by ABCD region in tricomponent diagram with following coordinates of system points Li2O-B2O3-MoO3 (for Li2O, B2O3, and MoO3, respectively): A û 0.18, 0.51, 0.31; B û 0.17, 0.83, 0; C û 0.04, 0.21, 0.75; D û 0.28, 0.07, 0.65. Growing crystal is drawn from solution with velocity 0.3-1.3 mm/day, while simultaneously lowering temperature of melt from 750-790 C to 690-720 C with velocity 1-2 C/day. Use of low- viscosity solvent for molybdenum trioxide as well as performing growth when drawing crystal enable formation of large LBO monocrystals with dimensions as high as 49x52x45 cu.mm exhibiting high optical quality indexes: change in refraction index less than 0.001, adsorption loss less than 0.001 cm , and ray resistance higher than 10 HW/sq. cm at lambda=1.06 mcm and tau=1 ns, which makes it possible to manufacture optical elements with dimensions up to (5- 15)x(5-15)x(5-30) cu. mm. EFFECT: improved optical characteristics of crystals. 1 dwgo