Global NLO Crystals Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

Global NLO Crystals Market Research Report 2023-Competitive Analysis, Status and Outlook by Type, Downstream Industry, and Geography, Forecast to 2029

NLO Crystals is short for Nonlinear Crystals, which means the crystals that can generate nonlinear optical effect from laser beam or electricity, magnetic field, and strain field. A nonlinear crystal is an optical crystal that possesses a strong nonlinear dielectric response function to optical radiation. A material with a strong second-order nonlinearity must not possess a center of symmetry. The most common non-linear optical crystals include KTP, BBO, LBO, CLBO, DKDP, ADP, KDP, LiIO3, KNbO3, LiNbO3, AgGaS2, AgGaSe2 etc. Each one has its own pros and cons.

Market Overview:

The latest research study on the global NLO Crystals market finds that the global NLO Crystals market reached a value of USD 782.81 million in 2022. It’s expected that the market will achieve USD 1314.01 million by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 9.02% during the forecast period.

Marketing channel sales will be affected differently

The distribution channel segment is divided into offline and online, the offline segment is dominating the market currently, and due to emergence of COVID-19, the online market witnessed a significant growth in 2020. The COVID-19 Outbreak has led to a decline in offline passenger flow, and the advantages of e-commerce companies have become prominent. During the epidemic prevention and control period, some NLO Crystals enterprises did not carry out internet marketing and promotion for their business, so they encountered great resistance in undertaking business. For enterprises that fail to make good use of network promotion means, there is almost no market development during the epidemic period, and the original offline market development plan is disrupted, and the epidemic will face fierce market homogenization competition, which is expected to have a great impact on the company's business throughout the year.

Upstream and downstream interactions will lead to disruption of business

The epidemic will have a short-term impact on NLO Crystals industry, but it is relatively limited. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the production of raw materials and equipment procurement and transportation supply are difficult to be in place, and upstream enterprises affect the work schedule of downstream enterprises. Equipment manufacturing and product manufacturing enterprises in NLO Crystals industry are affected to different degrees, and the production and delivery work may be delayed to some extent. Meanwhile, if it fails to meet the customer's delivery time requirements according to the contract, it may lead to the customer looking for another enterprise and lose business.

Apart from this, the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in the closing down of several manufacturing facilities across the globe. The pandemic caused huge revenue losses in end-use industry. The coronavirus lockdown put a brake on the production of several key raw materials in the global market, which, in turn, spiked the prices and lowered the demand for the product. The strict lockdown mandates imposed by governments have restricted cross-border trade between countries, another factor proving to be detrimental for the NLO Crystals market share. In addition, NLO Crystals manufacturers are drawing up plans for the international market as a new supply link in the global NLO Crystals industry, as companies look to re-engineer supply chains in the aftermath of COVID-19. Also, it is expected that the product demand in end-user sectors could pick up following the uplift of the lockdown in numerous countries.

Wide application

Nonlinear optical crystals are a crucial raw material used in nonlinear optics for the application of optical communication and data-storage technology. The global nonlinear optical crystals market is expected to expand significantly during the forecast period, owing to the increasing demand for nonlinear optical crystals for use in various applications such as materials research, optical sensing, and optical communication systems. Moreover, leading players are focusing on the research and development of nonlinear optical crystals for use in various potential applications such as frequency doubling, optical parametric oscillation, and remote sensing. The search for new organic nonlinear optical crystals has been of great interest because of their wide range of potential applications such as frequency doubling, optical switching, optical disk data storage, optical modulation, laser remote sensing and medical diagnostics. These materials attract significant attention as they possess large nonlinear optical susceptibilities, ultrafast nonlinear response time, high laser damage threshold and scope for introducing desirable characteristics by multifunctional substitutions. For NLO device applications still, there is a demand for good quality crystals with higher efficiency. For the past ten years, amino acids are playing a vital role in nonlinear optical crystal growth. This factor is expected to further drive the global nonlinear optical crystals market during the forecast period. Moreover, leading manufacturers of nonlinear optical crystals are planning to increase investments in research and development. Manufacturers are increasing their attention toward the wider application of nonlinear optical crystals in the area of optical communication. These factors are expected to drive the demand for nonlinear optical crystals during the forecast period.

Limitation of NLO Crystals

In many cases, a nonlinear crystal used for nonlinear frequency conversion has a very long lifetime, which is longer than that of the whole laser system. The crystal material is essentially not modified during operation. However, a reduced crystal lifetime can occur under various circumstances: Excessive optical intensities during operation may instantly damage a crystal. Hygroscopic crystal materials deteriorate when they are not always kept insufficiently dry air (or dry purge gas). Crystals that are non-critically phase-matched in a crystal oven may exhibit problems when the crystal temperature is changed too rapidly or too often. Crystal lifetime can also be strongly dependent on the material quality, although certain degradation phenomena appear to be intrinsic limitations of the material. Furthermore, nonlinear optical crystals offer high absorbance in the visible spectrum, which produces certain sluggish results. Moreover, the inorganic type of nonlinear optical crystals offers poor response time. These factors are expected to limit the usage of nonlinear optical crystals in the next few years.

Region Overview:

Geographically, North America held the largest market share – 36.91% in 2022.

Company Overview:

CASTECH is one of the major players operating in the NLO Crystals market, holding a share of 4.86% in 2023.

CASTECH

After 30 years' rapid growth since the foundation in 1990, CASTECH INC. has become a recognized leading supplier of crystals, optics and laser components in the world. In 2008 CASTECH successfully completed IPO in Shenzhen stock exchange. After thirty years' untiring effort, CASTECH has developed flux, Czochralski, water solution and bridgman-stockbarger crystal growing technology,now is a worldwide leading supplier with largest mass production lines in the world for LBO, BBO, Nd:YVO4 and KTP.

Raicol Crystals Ltd.

Raicol Crystals Ltd. specializes in the manufacture of nonlinear optical crystals and electro-optic devices. Raicol’s flux-grown KTP and RTP crystal products are world-renowned for their high quality and reliability. The company’s innovative crystal growth technology ensures that customers receive robust and reliable Gray Track Resistant KTP elements for intra-cavity CW and high average power SHG @ 1064nm. Raicol has also developed growth technology for high quality LBO and BBO crystals.

Segmentation Overview:

As for product types, the KTP segment held the largest market share in 2022.

KTP

KTP (Potassium Titanyl Phosphate) crystals are the most widely used material for frequency doubling of Nd-doped lasers, particularly at the low or medium power density. It is widely used for frequency mixing to generate Red/Green/Blue output, and for OPO and OPA to generate visible to mid-infrared tunable output. It is also used for many E-O devices such as Q-switches and E-O modulators.

BBO

BBO (Beta-Barium Borate) crystals are important nonlinear optical crystals with combination of unique optical properties. Broad transmission and phase matching ranges, large nonlinear coefficient, high damage threshold and excellent optical homogeneity provide attractive possibilities for various nonlinear optical applications.

LBO

LBO (Lithium Triborate) crystals are excellent nonlinear crystal. For frequency doubling (SHG), tripling (THG) of Nd: YAG, Nd: YLF, Nd: YVO4 lasers, it is one of the most useful nonlinear optical materials in ultraviolet and visible laser applications.

CLBO

CLBO is the crystal of choice for harmonic generation in the UV range with a transmission cut-off edge reaching 180 nm. Compared to BBO it features larger spectral and temperature acceptance, better angle tolerance, and a smaller walk-off angle.

DKDP

DKDP (Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate and Potassium) are one of the most widely-used commercial NLO materials, characterized by good UV transmission, high damage threshold, and high birefringence, though their NLO coefficients are relatively low. They are usually used for doubling, tripling and quadrupling of a Nd: YAG laser under the room temperature. In addition, they are also excellent electro-optic crystals with high electro-optic coefficients, widely used as electro-optical modulators, such as Q-switches, Pockels Cells, etc.

Application Overview:

The market's largest segment by application is the segment Industrial Laser, with a market share of 42.08% in 2022.

Optical Communication

Nonlinear optical crystals are used for various applications including Optical Communication, Industrial Laser, Medical, Lidar, Optical Ranging and Others. Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices.

Industrial Laser

Industrial lasers are used to cut metals and fabrics, mark tracking codes for industrial traceability, weld metals with high precision, clean metal surfaces, change the surface roughness, and measure part dimensions. They are widely used in several industries such as the EV and primary metals industries.

Medical

Medical lasers are medical devices that use precisely focused light sources to treat or remove tissues. Medical lasers for various clinical procedures including dermatology and plastic surgery, wound healings, nerve stimulation, dentistry, cancer therapy, and ophthalmic surgeries are reviewed.

Lidar

Lidar is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. Lidar can also be used to make digital 3-D representations of areas on the earth's surface and ocean bottom, due to differences in laser return times, and by varying laser wavelengths. It has terrestrial, airborne, and mobile applications.

Optical Ranging

Optical distance sensors are the culmination of decades of research and development (R&D) in the field of optoelectronics. The Optical Distance Sensor uses a pulsed light signal to return a value representing the distance from a target surface.

Key Companies in the global NLO Crystals market covered in Chapter 3:

GAMDAN Optics
Raicol Crystals Ltd.
United Crystals
3photon Ltd
CASTECH
Cristal Laser S.A
Inrad Optics Inc.
Newlight Photonics Inc.
Innowit Company Limited
Eksma Optics
Red Optronics
Gooch & Housego
Hangzhou Shalom EO
Optoaxis Photonics Inc.
WTS PHOTONICS

In Chapter 4 and Chapter 14.2, on the basis of types, the NLO Crystals market from 2018 to 2029 is primarily split into:

KTP
BBO
LBO
CLBO
DKDP
Others

In Chapter 5 and Chapter 14.3, on the basis of Downstream Industry, the NLO Crystals market from 2018 to 2029 covers:

Optical Communication
Industrial Laser
Medical
Lidar
Optical Ranging
Others

Geographically, the detailed analysis of consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate, historic and forecast (2018-2029) of the following regions are covered in Chapter 8 to Chapter 14:

North America (United States, Canada)
Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Netherlands, Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden)
Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia)
Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina)
Middle East & Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, South Africa)