Rb₁₀Zn₄Sn₄S₁₇: A Chalcogenide with Large Laser Damage Threshold Improved from the Mn-Based Analogue

In the military and civilian fields, with the development of new technologies, high-powered nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals demonstrate broad application prospects. In this work, for purposes of designing a better NLO material, a new chalcogenide Rb₁₀Zn₄Sn₄S₁₇ was successfully designed with a high temperature solid-state method on the basis of previously reported compound Sr₃MnSn₂S₈. The experimental results indicate that Rb₁₀Zn₄Sn₄S₁₇ possesses a prominent band gap of 3.59 eV, compared with the laser damage threshold (LDT) of Sr₃MnSn₂S₈ (3 times that of AgGaS₂); Rb₁₀Zn₄Sn₄S₁₇ shows an outstanding LDT about 5 times that of AgGaS₂. Meanwhile, it has an ideal second harmonic generation (SHG) response approximately 0.7 times that of AgGaS₂.