Heteroepitaxy of NLO Materials for Frequency Conversion in the MWIR with Applications in Defense and Security

While many materials used for frequency conversion in the midwave infrared (MWIR) have achieved their fundamental or technological limits, we propose heteroepitaxy as a solution. In this work a series of materials such as GaAs, GaP, ZnSe, GaSe, and GaAsP ternaries have been grown with high surface and crystalline quality on non-native substrates and nonnative orientation-patterned (OP) templates using low pressure hydride vapor phase epitaxy (LP-HVPE). The grown thick device quality quasi-phase matching (QPM) structures have been used for development of high-power, compact, broadly tunable frequency conversion laser sources for the MWIR with various applications in defense and security, including IR countermeasures, laser radar, high speed IR communications, remote sensing of chemical and biological agents, etc.