The search for suitable materials displaying excellent second order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties has attracted much interest because of their potential applications in photonic technologies, high density optical storage devices and material processing.A new phase-matchable perovskite-like phase,K₃B₆O₁₀Cl, exhibits a large second harmonic response about three times that of KH₂PO₄ and is transparent from the deep UV (180 nm) to middle-IR region. As a very attractive candidate for UV NLO crystals in solid-state laser applications, it is necessary to grow large high quality crystals to evaluate its application.

Prof. PAN Shilie and his Ph.D. students from Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics & Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently made a great progress in the growth large K₃B₆O₁₀Cl crystal. A high quality single crystal of K₃B₆O₁₀Cl with dimensions up to 25 × 11 × 7mm³ was successfully grown by the top-seeded solution growth method for the ？rst time. Morphological analysis reveals that the growth of the crystal is anisotropic. By the minimum deviation technique, the refractive indices of the crystal were measured and ？tted to the Sellmeier equations. The limit of type-I phase matching second harmonic generation wavelength was calculated to be 255 nm. The thermal properties and laser damage threshold have been investigated. These performances indicate that K₃B₆O₁₀Cl is a very attractive candidate for UV NLO crystals in solid-state laser applications.

This research entitled “Growth, Thermal and Optical Properties of a Novel Nonlinear Optical Material K₃B₆O₁₀Cl” (CrystEngComm, 2011, DOI:clce05886j) has been published as a cover image.

The work has been supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Corresponding author:

PAN Shilie,Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS.

Tel.: 86- 991- 3674558; E-mail: slpan@ms.xjb.ac.cn.

Figure. 1 (a) Photograph and (b) morphology of the K₃B₆O₁₀Cl crystal. (The minimum scale of the ruler is one millimetre.)