Crystal growth and thermal annealing of AgGaGe5Se12 crystal

AgGaGe5Se12 is a new quaternary nonlinear optical crystal which is applied to laser frequency conversion, especially converting 1.064 mu m light to mid-IR range. In this work, we have synthesized the AgGaGe5Se12 polycrystal by the two-zones temperature method. By the modified Bridgman method, we have grown high-quality AgGaGe5Se12 single crystal 30 mm in diameter and 50 mm in length. The structure refinement was carried out by the Rietveld method. Besides, the XRS results were analyzed by comparing with AgGaGeS4 and AgGaGe5Se12. In addition, the non-polarized Raman spectra were recorded and the intense peaks were observed at 200 and 232 cm(-1). The peaks were attributed to corner-sharing (CS) and edge-sharing (ES) clusters. At last, the crystal was characterized by a high transparency in the 0.6-15 mu m spectral range and the absorptions at 3.4 and 7 mu m, observed in the as-grown crystal, have been eliminated after annealing. Thus, AgGaGe5Se12 is appropriate for further optical experiments and more comprehensive applications. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

AgGaGe5Se12 is a new quaternary nonlinear optical crystal used for laser frequency conversion, and high-quality single crystals have been grown using the modified Bridgman method. The crystal structure was refined using the Rietveld method, and XRS results were analyzed comparing with other crystals. Additionally, the crystal showed high transparency in the spectral range of 0.6-15 μm after annealing.