Eye safety implications of high harmonic generation in zinc selenide. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Polycrystalline zinc selenide (ZnSe) has been the subject of many nonlinear optics studies for wavelengths under 4.0 m including sum/difference frequency generation, harmonic generation, and filamentation. In this report, the conversion efficiency of high harmonic generation (HHG) in ZnSe is quantified for mid-infrared wavelengths ranging from 2.7 m to 8.0 m. By increasing the fundamental wavelength, we demonstrate that HHG in thick ZnSe targets is limited by the band gap. The high conversion efficiency of mid-infrared to near-infrared light in ZnSe raises concerns of a nonlinear retinal hazard. We contrast the HHG behavior of ZnSe against the observed harmonic generation of calcium fluoride, BK7, and fused silica over the same wavelengths.

published proceedings

  • Opt Express

altmetric score

  • 1

author list (cited authors)

  • Marble, C. B., O'Connor, S. P., Nodurft, D. T., Wharmby, A. W., & Yakovlev, V. V.

citation count

  • 9

complete list of authors

  • Marble, Christopher B||O'Connor, Sean P||Nodurft, Dawson T||Wharmby, Andrew W||Yakovlev, Vladislav V

publication date

  • February 2019