Fireworks is released at once. Similar to a chrysanthemum, but with long-burning silver or gold stars that produce a soft, dome-shaped weeping willow-like effect. Fireworks pose risks of injury to people, and of damage, largely as a fire hazard. Fireworks produce smoke and dust that may contain residues of heavy metals, sulfur-coal compounds and some low concentration toxic chemicals. These by-products of fireworks combustion will vary depending on the mix of ingredients of a particular firework. (The color green, for instance, may be produced by adding the various compounds and salts of barium, some of which are toxic, and some of
Barium borate 1 GW/cm at 1064 nm and 500 MW/cm at 355 nm. Beta barium borate, β-BaBO, is a nonlinear optical material transparent in the range ~190–3300 nm. It can be used for spontaneous parametric down-conversion. Its Mohs hardness is also 4.5. Barium borate has strong negative uniaxial birefringence and can be phase-matched for type I ("ooe") second-harmonic generation from 409.6 to 3500 nm. The temperature sensitivity of the indices of refraction is low, leading to an unusually large (55 °C) temperature phase-matching bandwidth. Barium borate can be prepared by reaction of an aqueous solution of boric acid with barium hydroxide. The