Elastic and photo-elastic characteristics of laser crystals potassium rare-earth tungstates KRE(WO sub(4)) sub(2), where RE = Y, Yb, Gd and Lu

The elastic and photo-elastic characteristics of four laser crystals KY(WO sub(4)) sub(2), KGd(WO sub(4)) sub(2), KYb(WO sub(4)) sub(2), and KLu(WO sub(4)) sub(2) are presented. The first pair was reported early, and the last two materials have been investigated for the first time. The full matrix of elastic constants of these monoclinic crystals has been determined. Also, acousto-optical figure of merit for all the basic geometries of isotropic diffraction has been measured. It is proved that potassium rare-earth tungstates has rather good acousto-optical properties and particularly can take place of fused silica in technical applications required high power laser radiation. All the results demonstrate good prospect of these optically bi-axial laser crystals for development of new effective acousto-optical devices.