CdZn2KB2O6F, a new fluoride borate crystal.

During an attempt to grow crystals of the nonlinear optical material Cd(3)Zn(3)B(4)O(12) using a KBF(4) flux, crystals of a new cadmium dizinc potassium borate fluoride compound, CdZn(2)KB(2)O(6)F, were unexpectedly isolated. The structure consists of layers constructed of distorted corner-sharing ZnO(3)F tetrahedra and BO(3) triangles. Both Zn and B reside on threefold rotation axes, while the F(-) anion is located at a site of 3.

LaZnB(5)O(10), the first lanthanum zinc borate.

Lanthanum zinc penta-borate, LaZnB(5)O(10), was synthesized by flux-supported solid-state reaction. It is a member of the LnMB(5)O(10) (Ln = rare earth ion and M = divalent metal ion) structure type. The crystal shows a three-dimensional structure constructed from two-dimensional {[B(5)O(10)](5-)}(n) layers with the lanthanum (coordination number nine) and zinc (coordination number six) ions filling in the inter-layers.

Application of the nonlinear crystal SrB4O7 for ultrafast diagnostics converting to wavelengths as short as 125 nm.

We used non-phase-matched second-harmonic generation (SHG) in the highly nonlinear but low-birefringence crystal SrB4O7 for temporal characterization (autocorrelation) of femtosecond UV pulses to convert these pulses to wavelengths as low as 125 nm, close to the transparency limit of SrB4O7. The sensitivity of this method was approximately 1 microJ at the fundamental for a repetition rate of 1 kHz. We also used SHG at longer wavelengths to estimate the three nonlinear coefficients of SrB4O7.

A non-linear optical crystal, Cd(3)Zn(3)(BO(3))(4).

The title compound, tricadmium trizinc tetraborate, Cd(3)Zn(3)(BO(3))(4), is a new non-linear optical (NLO) crystal and its structure has been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. This compound is composed of planar [BO(3)](3-) groups sharing O atoms with CdO(4) or ZnO(4) tetrahedra. The BO(3) triangles are located on threefold axes and are arranged with nearly the same orientation.