Magnesium Oxide doped Lithium Niobate (MgO:LiNbO3) possesses a combination of excellent electro-optical and non-linear optical properties (transparency in 0.4 – 5 µm spectral range, high nonlinear optical coefficient and laser radiation resistance) with exhibiting mechanical and chemical stability. It has similar effective nonlinear coefficients, optical and physical properties as pure LiNbO3.

The damage threshold of MgO:LiNbO3 is much higher than that of pure LiNbO3 single crystals (> 200MW/cm2 (@ 1064nm, 10ns for pure LiNbO3 and >300MW/cm2 @ 1064 nm, 12ns for MgO:LiNbO3), because the doping of monocrystals with MgO in the range of 4 to 7 mol% suppresses the photorefractive damage. MgO:LiNbO3 is characterized by noncritical phase matching (NCPM) at room temperature and can achieved angle tuning SHG of Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF laser. MgO:LiNbO3 is commonly used for electro-optical modulation (EOM Q-switches), high power frequency doublers (SHG), mixers (SFG), optical parametric oscillators (OPO) and amplinbo3iers (OPA) and integrated waveguides.