Helix-constructed polar rare-earth iodate fluoride as a laser nonlinear optical multifunctional material

Guang Peng; Yi Yang; Tao Yan; Dan Zhao; Bingxuan Li; Ge Zhang; Zheshuai Lin; Ning Ye

doi:10.1039/d0sc02789h

Helix-constructed polar rare-earth iodate fluoride as a laser nonlinear optical multifunctional material

Chem Sci. 2020 Jun 23;11(28):7396-7400. doi: 10.1039/d0sc02789h. eCollection 2020 Jul 28.

Authors

Guang Peng^{1

2}, Yi Yang³, Tao Yan^{1

2}, Dan Zhao⁴, Bingxuan Li^{1

2}, Ge Zhang^{1

2}, Zheshuai Lin³, Ning Ye^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and Physics , Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Fuzhou , Fujian 350002 , China . Email: nye@fjirsm.ac.cn ; Email: yantao@fjirsm.ac.cn.
² Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China , Fuzhou , Fujian 350002 , China.
³ Beijing Center for Crystal R&D , Key Lab of Functional Crystals and Laser Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190 , China.
⁴ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering , Henan Polytechnic University , Jiaozuo , Henan 454000 , China.

Abstract

The first trivalent rare-earth iodate fluoride nonlinear optical (NLO) crystal, Y(IO₃)₂F (YIF), was successfully designed and synthesized, featuring polarization-favorable helical chains constructed from trans-YO₆F₂ polyhedra and IO₃ groups. It exhibited a suitable balance of a wide transparency range of 0.26-10.0 μm, high laser damage threshold (LDT) of 39.6 × AgGaS₂, and moderate second harmonic generation (SHG) effect of 2 × KDP. A series of doped RE:YIF (RE = Pr, Nd, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb) crystals were easily synthesized benefiting from the spring-shaped helix structure, which possess wide absorption and emission peaks as well as long lifetime, especially in the visible and near-infrared regions. Particularly, the remarkable fluorescence properties of Nd and Yb doped YIF crystals are comparable to and even better than those of traditional self-frequency doubling (SFD) crystals such as YAB, YCOB, and GdCOB. Thus, these RE-doped YIF crystals are promising laser SFD crystals. This work also indicated that constructing helical chains should be an effective strategy for the design of inorganic polar materials.