Abstract
The expansion of commercial excimer lasers has increased the need of high-quality optics manufactured from CaF2. The key technical parameters, affecting the long-term quality of CaF2 excimer laser optics, are controlled by the purity of the raw material. The new purifying techniques provide 99.99% purity of the starting material which rises up to 99.999% into the grown crystals. However, the techniques are rather expensive which leads to a significant rise in the price of the final crystal product. The present paper describes an alternative highly effective and relatively low-cost technique providing a precise control over a set of preparatory and purifying procedures and crystal growth. Using an original apparatus for electro-chemical grinding of the thermo-broken starting material, the grained product, uncontaminated by unintentional impurities, may be highly purified by two complementary methods to produce precursors used for UV- and laser-grade CaF2 crystal growth.
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Received: 20 April 1999 / Reviewed and accepted: June 2, 1999
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Mouchovski, I., Genov, V., Pirgov, L. et al. Preparation of CaF2 precursors for laser grade crystal growth. Mat Res Innovat 3, 138–144 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s100190050139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s100190050139