Boromalate salts: a new family of solution-grown crystals for nonlinear optical applications for the UV, visible, and near-IR

This paper reports our preliminary results for a new and promising family of solution-grown nonlinear optical (NLO) materials based on salts of the boromalate anion. Crystals of this family which we have characterized include lithium boromalate (LiBC₈H₈O ₁₀), potassium boromalate hydrate (KBC₈H₈ O₁₀·H₂O), sodium boromalate (NaBC₈H₈O₁₀), guanidinium boromalate (CN₃H₃BC₈H₈O₁₀) and ammonium boromalate (NH₄BC₈H₈O₁₀). These preliminary results suggest that boromalate-based semiorganic salts show promise as new NLO materials for frequency conversion in the near-IR to near-UV. Because the angular sensitivity appears to be small and relatively constant, the power threshold figure of merit is expected to compare favorably with high temperature melt-grown materials, such as BBO