Abstract
A series of lithium niobate LiNbO3 (LN) single crystals doped with Er3+ were grown under the same conditions by melt-quenching method. The distribution coefficients of rare-earth (RE) elements in the "crystal-melt" system of LN were determined at the beginning of the crystal growth. Their dependence on the dopant concentration in melt for 0.4 and 0.8 wt % was investigated. The procedure is applied to RE-doped lithium niobate (LiNbO3), a material of great interest for optoelectronic applications. We have obtained the real chi((3))(R) and imaginary parts chi((3))(I) of the third-order, nonlinear optical susceptibility to the nonlinear refractive index n(2) and the nonlinear absorption coefficient beta that are valid for absorbing systems. We show that nonlinear refractive or absorptive effects are the consequence of the interplay between the real and imaginary parts of the third-order susceptibilities of the materials. The method for measuring non-linear absorption coefficients and nonlinear refractive index based on well-known Z-scan is presented. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.