A survey of stereoactive oxysalts for linear and nonlinear optical applications

Stereoactive oxysalts can exhibit excellent nonlinear optical coefficients and linear optical properties, like large birefringence and strong second harmonic generation (SHG) intensity, due to the stereo-chemically active lone pair electrons. Recently, a series of stereoactive oxysalts with new structures and strong performances have been reported, such as RbTeMo2O8F (27 × KDP, 0.263@546 nm), Pb2Bi(SeO3)2Cl3 (13.5 × KDP, 0.186@1064 nm), Y3F(SeO3)4 (5.5 × KDP, 5.03 eV), Bi(IO3)F2 (11.5 × KDP, 0.209@1064 nm) and K2Sb(P2O7)F (4.0 × KDP, 0.157@546 nm), etc. In this review, we summarized the recent progresses on stereoactive oxysalts by focusing on their structures and linear/nonlinear optical applications, surveying over a thousand newly reported compounds. Based on the different types of the centered cations, the reported stereoactive oxysalts compounds were classified into five different categories, metal antimonites, metal selenites, metal tellurites, metal iodates and metal bromates. We believe that stereoactive oxysalts are the promising candidates for many advanced functional materials and hope this paper can provide some perspectives for the development of new stereoactive oxysalts. More importantly, this comprehensive review not only introduces the rich structural and chemical properties of stereoactive oxysalts for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, but also serves as a comprehensive reference for researchers studying optical properties of stereoactive oxysalts materials.