Heteroanionic Melilite Oxysulfide: A Promising Infrared Nonlinear Optical Candidate with a Strong Second-Harmonic Generation Response, Sufficient Birefringence, and Wide Bandgap

The achievement of balanced performance with a strong second-harmonic generation (SHG) response, proper birefringence, and wide band gap concurrently is a crucial but challenging task in infrared nonlinear optical (IR-NLO) crystals. Here, we theoretically confirmed that the heteroanionic oxysulfide tetrahedron would produce improved polarizability anisotropy and quadratic hyperpolarizability compared with the monoanionic oxide or sulfide tetrahedra. When this anion-mixing strategy was applied, melilite oxysulfide with the four representative members A₂GeGa₂OS₆ (A = Ca, Sr) and Sr₂MGe₂OS₆ (M = Zn, Cd) was successfully discovered as a promising IR-NLO material system. Remarkably, compared with the monoanionic melilite oxides, these compounds exhibited unbiased performances of proper birefringences (0.106-0.143), strong SHG responses (>10× melilite oxide Ba₂CdGe₂O₇, 1.3-2.1× AgGaS₂ (AGS) @1570 nm) with phase-matchable ability, wide band gaps (2.95-3.15 eV), and large laser-induced damage thresholds (LIDTs, 5.6-13.4× AGS). The high structure tolerance of melilite offers a great possibility to improve the SHG response via tuning the orbital composition and hybridization near band edges. This work provides an effective approach for the design of high-performance IR-NLO materials.