Coordinated regulation on critical physiochemical performances activated from mixed tetrahedral anionic ligands in new series of Sr6A4M4S16 (A = Ag, Cu; M = Ge, Sn) nonlinear optical materials.

A new family of non-centrosymmetric (NCS) compounds Sr6A4M4S16 (A = Ag, Cu; M = Ge, Sn) with mixed tetrahedral anionic ligands (AS4 and MS4) was successfully synthesized and characterized for the first time. All of the compounds exhibit excellent performances as promising infrared nonlinear optical (IR NLO) materials, with large NLO responses (1.1–2.0 × benchmark AgGaS2), high laser damage thresholds (2.0–4.5 × AgGaS2) and wide IR transmission ranges, and are nonhygroscopic. Moreover, their property modulation by the combination of different anionic groups was also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]