Young and collaborators at the University of Houston report on how to access to the elusive deep-ultraviolet (DUV) by direct second harmonic generation (SHG) in a new beryllium-free zincoborate-phosphate crystal in their article appearing in Adv. Mater., 27, 7380-7385, (2015), which was also selected as a frontispiece highlight.
Ba3(ZnB5O10)PO4 exhibits large SHG responses at 1064 and 532 nm and a short 180 nm absorption edge. Quantum mechanical calculations performed on the high-performance computing facility (Carbon) at Argonne National Laboratory’s Center for Nanoscale Materials were necessary to demonstrate the key role played by ZnO4 tetrahedra (anion groups) to the enhanced nonlinear optical response.