Lithium Niobate Tantalate: Investigations of Nonlinear Optical Behavior and Ultrafast Transient Phenomena

Lithium niobate tantalate <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\text{LiNb}_{1-x} \text{Ta}_{x} \mathrm{O}_{3}, 0 \leq x \leq 1$</tex>, LNT) - with its prominent edge compositions lithium niobate <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\text{LiNbO}_{3}, x=0, \text{LN})$</tex> and lithium tantalate <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(\text{LiTaO}_{3}, x=1, \text{LT})$</tex>- is a promising solid solution for research and industry. The exceptional electro-optic, nonlinear optical, and piezoelectric properties of LN and LT are already widely used in acousto-optical modulators and optical frequency converters in photonics and telecommunication industries. The possibility to tune the crystal's properties via composition <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$x$</tex> in LNT potentially allows for tailoring material properties, thus offering a pathway to customize functionalities for specific applications. Despite long-standing efforts, it is only recently that high-quality, bulk crystals of LNT were grown by means of Czochralski technique in the range <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$0 &lt; x &lt; 1$</tex> and have become available for comprehensive studies, in particular for (non-)linear optical investigations [1].