Birefringent materials are of great
importance in optical communication
and the laser industry, as they can modulate the polarization of light.
Limited by their transparency range, few birefringent materials, except
α-BaB2O4 (α-BBO), can be practically
used in the deep ultraviolet (UV) region. However, α-BBO suffers
from a phase transition and does not have enough transparency in the
deep UV region. By introducing the relatively small alkali metal Na+ cation and the F– anion to keep the favorable
structural features of α-BBO, we report a new birefringent crystal
Na3Ba2(B3O6)2F (NBBF), which has the desirable optical properties. NBBF not only
maintains the large birefringence (Δn = n
o – n
e =
0.2554–0.0750 from 175 nm to 3.35 μm) and extends its
UV cutoff edge to 175 nm (14 nm shorter than α-BBO) but also
eliminates the phase transition and has the lowest growth temperature
(820 °C) among birefringent materials. These results demonstrate
that NBBF is an attractive candidate for the next generation of deep
UV birefringent materials.