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Physics

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Introduction

Optic systems used in telecommunications and lasers have need of crystals for frequency multiplying. Most of these are processed Potassium Titanium Phosphate (KTP) crystals, which work, but the processing requires very low temperatures and is intrinsically inconvenient. Much of the crystal growing is done in China, though the customers are in the US and Europe.

Patent Status

A patent has been filed by Isis Innovations on July 17th, 2000, with named inventors as Thomas and two Oxford Univ staff. It describes methods of doping KTP crystals with Rubidium or other material to provide the required characteristics. It is anticipate that this doping will prove to be a preferable method, as it will be more convenient that the low-temperature processing and will give comparable crystal quality. Sample crystals have been made, but they have not yet been fully tested in the lab, let alone by customers.

The Market

The market is large and growing. It consists of laser and telecoms firms and their suppliers. It is not yet clear what premium could be demanded for these crystals, and what sort of licence fees could be demanded from the crystal growers.