Femtosecond laser induced space-selective precipitation of a deep-ultraviolet nonlinear BaAlBO3F2 crystal in glass

• Space-selective precipitation of deep-UV BaAlBO3F2 crystals in glass was achieved.
• BaAlBO3F2 crystals mainly locate in the area around the center of modified region.
• The SHG intensity of BaAlBO3F2 crystals in glass could be tuned.
• The glass sample embedded BaAlBO3F2 crystals exhibit good deep-UV transmittance.

A deep-ultraviolet (UV) nonlinear optical BaAlBO3F2 crystal was space-selective precipitated in stoichiometric 50BaF2–25Al2O3–25B2O3 glass by using a 500 kHz femtosecond pulse laser, which was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The distribution of BaAlBO3F2 crystals in glass was analyzed by Raman spectra and Raman mapping. The second-harmonic generation (SHG) intensity of BaAlBO3F2 crystals in glass could be tuned by changing the laser average power and exposure time. Absorption spectra were used to investigate the transmittance of the glass sample before and after the femtosecond laser irradiation.