High‐Performance Sulfate Optical Materials Exhibiting Giant Second Harmonic Generation and Large Birefringence

Mixed-Anion-Oriented Design of LnMGa3S6O (Ln = La, Pr, and Nd; M = Ca and Sr) Nonlinear Optical Oxysulfides with Targeted Property Balance

Nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals are of importance on extending infrared (IR) laser wavelengths. Considering their performance drawbacks in commercial IR NLO crystals, a recent challenge in exploring new excellent IR NLO crystals is how to break the inherent conflict between a wide bandgap (E_g ≥ 3.0 eV) and large NLO effect (d_ij ≥ 0.5 × AgGaS₂) and simultaneously enlarge the birefringence (Δn) for a requisite phase-matching (PM) behavior. For that reason, rational combination of mixed-anion functional groups into a crystal structure affords the successful design and synthesis of six LnMGa₃S₆O (Ln = La, Pr, and Nd; M = Ca and Sr) NLO oxysulfides. Among them, LaMGa₃S₆O satisfy the property-balance demand (E_g: 3.21-3.27 eV and d_ij: 0.9-1.0 × AgGaS₂) as promising PM NLO crystals through gathering their property advantages between LaMGa₃O₇ and LaMGa₃S₇ by mixed-anion-oriented performance engineering. A study on the structure-property relationship indicates that heteroleptic (Ln/M)S₇O and GaS₃O anionic groups are proven as promising NLO-active units and offer a great synergistic effect on the NLO origin. This work as a visualized model not only provides a first clear cognition on varying properties from oxide to sulfide to oxysulfide but also highlights the feasibility of mixed-anion-oriented design of new NLO candidates with balanced performances.

Heteroanionic Melilite Oxysulfide: A Promising Infrared Nonlinear Optical Candidate with a Strong Second-Harmonic Generation Response, Sufficient Birefringence, and Wide Bandgap

The achievement of balanced performance with a strong second-harmonic generation (SHG) response, proper birefringence, and wide band gap concurrently is a crucial but challenging task in infrared nonlinear optical (IR-NLO) crystals. Here, we theoretically confirmed that the heteroanionic oxysulfide tetrahedron would produce improved polarizability anisotropy and quadratic hyperpolarizability compared with the monoanionic oxide or sulfide tetrahedra. When this anion-mixing strategy was applied, melilite oxysulfide with the four representative members A2GeGa2OS6 (A = Ca, Sr) and Sr2MGe2OS6 (M = Zn, Cd) was successfully discovered as a promising IR-NLO material system. Remarkably, compared with the monoanionic melilite oxides, these compounds exhibited unbiased performances of proper birefringences (0.106-0.143), strong SHG responses (>10× melilite oxide Ba2CdGe2O7, 1.3-2.1× AgGaS2 (AGS) @1570 nm) with phase-matchable ability, wide band gaps (2.95-3.15 eV), and large laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs, 5.6-13.4× AGS). The high structure tolerance of melilite offers a great possibility to improve the SHG response via tuning the orbital composition and hybridization near band edges. This work provides an effective approach for the design of high-performance IR-NLO materials.