A Short-wave UV Nonlinear Optical Sulfate of High Thermal Stability

Compared with borates, carbonates, nitrates and phosphates, sulfates have been ignored as nonlinear optical(NLO) materials for a long time. Recently, researchers started to realize sulfates which have the potential as NLO materials, and synthesized some sulfate NLO materials by the water solution method and solvothermal method. However, all these sulfate NLO materials have the same problem of low thermal stability. Here, we synthesized a new Cs4 Mg6(SO4)8, which crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group P212121 with a = 9.102, b = 9.955, c = 16.127 ?, V = 1461.3 ?3, Z = 2, F(000) = 1352, μ = 5.777 mm-1, R = 0.0213 and wR = 0.0480. The single crystal structure can be described as a three-dimensional framework constructed by MgO6 octahedra and SO4 tetrahedra. Relevant optical measurements indicate that Cs4 Mg6(SO4)8 is short-wave ultraviolet transparent and has a moderate second harmonic generation response. Theoretical calculations by the CASTEP package reveal that S–O groups are NLO-active anionic groups. Significantly, Cs4 Mg6(SO4)8 has high thermal stability up to 781 ℃ based on thermal analyses. We believe that our work will provide a new strategy for researchers to develop new sulfate short-wave ultraviolet NLO materials of high thermal stability.