Rare-earth-based chalcogenides and their derivatives: an encouraging IR nonlinear optical material candidate

• DOI: 10.1039/d4sc00697f
• Publication Date: 2024-03-22T09:21:35Z
• Authors: Ping Feng; Jia-Xiang Zhang; Mao-Yin Ran; Xin-Tao Wu; Hua Lin; Qi-Long Zhu
• Keywords: Chalcogen; Tetrahedron; Lone pair

With the continuous development of laser technology and increasing demand for lasers different frequencies in infrared (IR) spectrum, research on nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals has garnered growing attention. Currently, three main commercially available types borate materials each have their drawbacks, which limit applications various areas. Rare-earth (RE)-based chalcogenide compounds, characterized by unique f-electron configuration, strong positive charges, high coordination numbers RE cations, often exhibit distinctive responses. In field IR-NLO crystals, they a history spanning several decades, with interest. However, there is currently no comprehensive review summarizing analyzing these promising compounds. this review, we categorize 85 representative examples out more than 400 non-centrosymmetric (NCS) compounds into four classes based connection asymmetric building motifs: (1) RE-based chalcogenides containing tetrahedral motifs; (2) lone-pair-electron (3) [BS