We have conducted tests to ascertain whether or not exposure to erbia would adversely affect the mechanical properties of vanadium more than the regular annealing furnace environment. Mechanical properties of the vanadium exposed to erbia are not different from those of the vanadium to a regular annealing furnace environment. However, there is a change in the impurity levels, the carbon content increasing and the oxygen content decreasing. There is also anomalous behavior in the strain-hardening and elongation to failure of both the annealed and the erbia specimens. It is possible that hydrogen could have been released as a result of water reacting with the vanadium to form oxides. Very small amounts of hydrogen can impair the mechanical properties of vanadium. It is possible, on the basis of diffusion data, that, should hydrogen be generated in this fashion, it could diffuse completely through the vanadium and contaminate whatever is in contact with the vanadium. Further experiments should be conducted to verify whether or not hydrogen is in fact responsible for the anomalous strain-hardening and elongation-to-failure behavior. 20 refs., 8 figs., 3 tabs.

Two figures of merit, the threshold power (P/sub th/) and the limiting volume (V/sub min/) can be used to compare the relative efficiency and economy of new harmonic generating crystals. The properties of barium metaborate and L-Arginine phosphate are used to illustrate the effect of nonlinearity, birefringence, and damage threshold on these figures of merit.

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