Two Pyrophosphates with Large Birefringences and Second‐Harmonic Responses as Ultraviolet Nonlinear Optical Materials

Two new pyrophosphates nonlinear optical (NLO) materials, Rb3PbBi(P2O7)2 (I) and Cs3PbBi(P2O7)2 (II), were successfully designed and synthesized. Both compounds exhibit large NLO effects and birefringences. Material I presents the scarce case of possessing the coexistence of large birefringence (0.031 at 1064 nm and 0.037 at 532 nm) and second harmonic generation (SHG) response (2.8× potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP)) in ultraviolet NLO phosphates and its SHG is the largest in the phase‐matching (PM) pyrophosphates. Both I and II have three‐dimensional (3D) crystal structures composed of corner‐shared RbO12 (CsO11), RbO10 (CsO10), BiO6, PbO7 (PbO6) and P2O7 groups, in which P2O7 and PbO7 (PbO6) units form an alveolate [PbPO]∞ skeleton frame. Theoretical calculations reveal that the P−O, Bi−O and Pb−O units are mainly responsible for the moderate birefringence and large SHG efficiency of I. An ideal balance has been achieved among nonlinear optical (NLO) effect, birefringence and cut‐off edge for Rb3PbBi(P2O7)2 pyrophosphate. Promising UV NLO materials, Rb3PbBi(P2O7)2 and Cs3PbBi(P2O7)2, were obtained in which [PbPO]∞ layers and BiO6 polyhedra containing two types of lone‐pair cations are present.