Deep‐Ultraviolet Nonlinear‐Optical van‐der‐Waals Beryllium Borates

Van‐der‐Waals (vdW) deep‐ultraviolet (DUV) nonlinear‐optical (NLO) materials hold great potential to extend DUV NLO applications to two dimensions, but they are rare in nature. In this study, we propose a design principle to realize vdW DUV NLO materials via structural evolution from the non‐vdW (BO3)‐(BeO3F) layers in KBe2BO3F2 (KBBF) to the vdW (BO3)‐(BeO4H) layers in berborite Be2BO5H3 (BBH) and the vdW (BO4)‐(BeO4) layers in beryllium metaborate BeB2O4 (BEBO). Based on first‐principles calculations, the fundamental NLO properties of BBH and BEBO demonstrate that a balanced DUV NLO performance can be achieved in these two systems. Importantly, BBH, a layered material existing in nature, can achieve an available DUV phase‐matched output with strong second harmonic generation (SHG) for 177.3/193.7 nm DUV lasers, which is almost identical to that of KBBF. Remarkably, BEBO shows an excellent DUV SHG capacity and an even shorter phase‐matching wavelength than KBBF. Therefore, the newly discovered vdW BBH and BEBO, once verified by experiments, could provide an ideal platform to study DUV NLO effects in three dimensions and two dimensions. We propose a design strategy to achieve van‐der‐Waals (vdW) deep‐ultraviolet (DUV) nonlinear‐optical (NLO) materials. Berborite Be2BO5H3 with trigonal (BO3)‐(BeO4H) layers and beryllium metaborate BeB2O4 with tetragonal (BO4)‐(BeO4) layers are predicted as two promising vdW DUV NLO crystal candidates, exhibiting a good DUV NLO performance balance with ultrawide optical band gaps, strong NLO effects, and sufficiently large birefringence.