Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 27, 2026

Hyperspectral Imaging as a Tool to Study Optical Anisotropy in Lanthanide-Based Molecular Single Crystals
Published on: April 14, 2020
Structure change induced by terminal sulfur in noncentrosymmetric La2Ga2GeS8 and Eu2Ga2GeS7 and nonlinear-optical
Mei-Chun Chen1, Peng Li, Liu-Jiang Zhou
1Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and Physics, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Two new noncentrosymmetric quaternary sulfides, La(2)Ga(2)GeS(8) (1) and Eu(2)Ga(2)GeS(7) (2), have been synthesized by high-temperature solid-state reactions. The structure change on going from 1 to 2 to the known Li(2)Ga(2)GeS(6) (3) nicely shows that the reduced cation charge-compensation requirement causes a decrease in the number of terminal S atoms per formula, which is a key to determining the connectivity of the GaS(4) and GeS(4) building units. Powder sample 2 exhibits a strong second-harmonic-generation (SHG) response of about 1.6 times the benchmark AgGaS(2) at 2.05 μm laser radiation, a non type I phase-matchable behavior, and a comparable transparency region. The SHG intensities of these compounds originate from the electronic transitions from S 3p states to La/Eu/Li-S, Ga-S, and Ge-S antibonding states according to Vienna ab initio simulation package studies.
Related Concept Videos
Thermal Sigmatropic Reactions: Overview
Sigmatropic shifts are classified based on an order term [i, j ], where i and j indicate the number of atoms across which each end of the σ bond migrates. Below are examples of a [3,3] sigmatropic shift in 1,5-hexadiene, referred to as...
π Electron Effects on Chemical Shift: Aromatic and Antiaromatic Compounds
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human eye.
Crystal Field Theory - Octahedral Complexes
To explain the observed behavior of transition metal complexes (such as colors), a model involving electrostatic interactions between the electrons from the ligands and the electrons in the unhybridized d orbitals of the central metal atom has been developed. This electrostatic model is crystal field theory (CFT). It helps to understand, interpret, and predict the colors, magnetic behavior, and some structures of coordination compounds of transition metals.
CFT focuses on...
UV–Vis Spectroscopy: Molecular Electronic Transitions
VSEPR Theory and the Effect of Lone Pairs

