Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.137, No.6, 2207-2210, 2015
Beryllium-Free Rb3Al3B3O10F with Reinforced Inter layer Bonding as a Deep-Ultraviolet Nonlinear Optical Crystal
A new beryllium-free borate Rb3Al3B3O10F has been synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. It features a framework structure consisting of alveolate [Al-3(BO3)(3)OF](infinity) layers tightly bound via AlO and AlF bridged bonds, with the in-layer [BO3](3) groups in nearly coplanar and aligned arrangement. This compound is transparent down to 200 nm and is phase-matchable with a powder second-harmonic generation efficiency of 1.2 times that of KH2PO4. Remarkably, it exhibits a strong interlayer bonding which is about one order larger than that of the benchmark KBe2BO3F2, thus no layering tendency was observed during the crystal growth. In addition, it is nonhygroscopic and thermally stable up to similar to 1462 K. These attributes make Rb3Al3B3O10F a promising nonlinear optical crystal in the deep-ultraviolet region. First-principles calculations, combined with the anionic group theory, were adopted to rationalize the optical properties.