Structure and physical properties of the polar oxysulfide CaZnOS

The synthesis, structure, and electrical properties of the oxysulfide CaZnOS are reported. The white compound has a band gap of 3.7(1) eV and crystallizes in hexagonal space group P6(3)mc (No. 186) with a = 3.75726(3) A, c = 11.4013(1) A, and Z = 2. The noncentrosymmetric structure, which has few analogues, is composed of isotypic puckered hexagonal ZnS and CaO layers arranged so that ZnS3O tetrahedra are all aligned parallel, resulting in a polar structure. The compound shows type 1 non-phase-matchable second harmonic generation, determined using 1064 nm radiation, with an efficiency approximately 100 times that of alpha-SiO2 and a piezoelectric coefficient of 38 pm V-1. Although polar, CaZnOS is not ferroelectric and the pyroelectric coefficient is very small, approximately 0.0 microC m-2 K-1 between room temperature and 100 degrees C.