Quadratic nonlinear optical parameters of 7% MgO-doped LiNbO3 crystal

•UV absorption edge shift in LiNbO3:MgO was observed.•The Maker fringe technique was applied to study NLO response.•I-type phase-matched second harmonic generation was achieved.•The values NLO parameters were experimentally obtained.

Pure and 7% MgO-doped lithium niobate (LiNbO3) single crystals were grown by the Czochralski technique. The shift of optical absorption edge in 7% MgO-doped crystal in direction of shorter wavelength compared to undoped crystal was observed. The second harmonic generation measurements of 7% MgO-doped LiNbO3 crystal were performed at room temperature by means of the rotational Maker fringe technique using Nd:YAG laser generating at 1064 nm in picoseconds regime. Experimentally obtained value of nonlinear optical coefficient d33 for 7% MgO-doped LiNbO3 was found to be less than for undoped crystal but higher than for 5% MgO-doped. I-type phase-matched second harmonic generation was achieved and the value of phase-matched angle was calculated. High quadratic nonlinearity together with tolerance to intensive laser irradiation makes 7% MgO-doped LiNbO3 crystal interesting for application in optoelectronics.