AgGaGe5S12
AgGaGe5Se12 is a new quaternary nonlinear optical crystal that is of interest due to its potential applications in laser frequency conversion, particularly in converting 1.064 μm light to the mid-IR range. In this work, the authors have synthesized the AgGaGe5Se12 polycrystal using the two-zones temperature method and have grown high-quality AgGaGe5Se12 single crystals using a modified Bridgman method. The single crystals have a diameter of 30 mm and a length of 50 mm.
The structure refinement of the crystal was performed using the Rietveld method, and the XRS results were analyzed and compared with those of AgGaGeS4 and AgGaGe5S12. The non-polarized Raman spectra of the crystal were also recorded, and intense peaks were observed at 200 and 232 cm-1, which were attributed to corner-sharing (CS) and edge-sharing (ES) clusters.
The authors also found that the AgGaGe5Se12 crystal had a high transparency in the 0.6-15 μm spectral range, and the absorptions at 3.4 and 7 μm that were observed in the as-grown crystal were eliminated after annealing. This makes AgGaGe5Se12 a suitable material for further optical experiments and comprehensive applications.
Overall, this work highlights the potential of AgGaGe5Se12 as a promising nonlinear optical crystal and demonstrates the feasibility of synthesizing high-quality single crystals of this material using a modified Bridgman method.