Abstract

First, starting from the anionic group theory of nonlinear optical (NLO) effect in the crystals, it is found that NLO and some linear optical properties, e.g. the birefringence and absorption edge, in the boron-oxygen compounds are mainly determined by boron-oxygen groups. On this basis, various types of boron-oxygen compounds are classified according to the theory and systematic calculations have been carried out on NLO susceptibilies of various boron-oxygen groups in the compounds. Then several structural criterias have been suggested; particularly the requirement of the structure of boron-oxygen groups to produce large SHG coefficients and suitable linear optical properties. It is these theoretical and experimental knowledge that leads Chen’s group to discover several new NLO crystals from the boron-oxygen compounds, including β-BaB₂O₄(BBO) and LiB₃O₅ (LBO).

© 1988 Optical Society of America