Wen-Dan Cheng, Chen-Sheng Lin, Wei-Long Uhang, Hao Zhang: Structural Designs and Property Characterizations for Second-Harmonic Generation Materials.- Fang Kong, Chuan-Fu Sun, Bing-Ping Yang, Jiang-Gao Mao: Second-order Non-linear Optical Materials based on Metal Iodates, Selenites and Tellurites.- Guo-Fu Wang: Structure, growth, nonlinear optics and laser properties of RX3(BO3)4 (R=Y, Gd, La; X=Al, Sc).- Chaoyang Tu, Zhaojie Zhu, Zhenyu You, Jianfu Li, Yan Wang, Alain Brenier: The Recent Development of Borate SF-conversion Laser Crystal.- Ning Ye: Structure design and crystal growth of UV nonlinear borate materials.- Yi-Zhi Huang, Li-Ming Wu, Mao-Chun Hong: Cation Effect in Doped BBO and Halogen Anion Effect in Pb2B5O9X (X– = I–, Br–, Cl–).

Xiao-Ming Jiang, Sheng-Ping Guo, Hui-Yi Zeng, Ming-Jian Zhang, Guo-Cong Guo: Large Crystal Growth and New Crystal Exploration of Mid-Infrared Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Materials.- Kechen Wu: Simulation and Design of Infrared Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Materials in Metal Cluster Compounds.- Chaoyang Tu: The Recent Development Of SRS and SRS SF- conversion Laser Crystal.- Hua-Jun Zhao, Xin-Tao Wu, Li-Ming Wu: Exploration of New Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Compounds Containing Main Group Elements.

Borate crystals are attractive for different technological applications because of their favorable physical and chemical properties like stability and high transparency, both high thermal and non-linear optical coefficients, making them ideal active media for highly efficient solid state lasers. In this Special Issue, different aspects of multifunctional borate crystals are discussed, including ortho- and oxyorthoborates and compounds with condensed anions, as well as their nonlinear optical and laser properties and piezoelectric characteristics. For this reason, complex investigations of the phase relationships in multi-component borate melts, the study of crystal growth conditions of novel high-temperature borates, and the development of the “crystallization conditions, composition, structure, and properties” concept will provide a scientific basis for growth technologies of high performance electronic and optical devices and components with a variety of industrial, medical and many other applications. In the meantime, these relationships can help to estimate the affinity of synthetic borate materials with their natural prototypes and structural analogues.

This clear and self-contained review of the last four decades of research highlights in the hot field of nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals, particularly of borate-based ultraviolet and deep-ultraviolet NLO crystals, covers three major subjects: the structure-property relationship in borate crystals, the structural and optical characteristics of various promising borate crystals, and their fruitful applications in a wide range of scientific and technological fields. Edited by the discoverers and users of these optical borate crystals, this is a readily accessible reading for semiconductor, applied and solid state physicists, materials scientists, solid state chemists, manufacturers of optoelectronic devices, and those working in the optical industry.

This book presents the findings of a major research program investigating structural design and controllable preparation of function-directed crystalline materials. The program was launched by the National Natural Science Foundation of China during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, which was started in October 2008 and concluded at the end of 2016. This book first summarizes the overall scientific objectives and the current state of the art of crystalline materials research in China and the international frontier. It also focuses on exploring the relationships between structures, compositions, and properties of crystalline materials and proposes new mechanisms and models for new materials exploration. In addition, it introduces a new functional-motif theory that can guide the development of crystalline materials with optical, electrical, and other composite functions and presents new research methods for the controlled synthesis and assembly of crystalline materials, and detection and characterization of functional motifs. Furthermore, practical applications for materials such as photoelectric conversion materials, nonlinear optical materials, laser and fluorescent crystal materials, and ferroelectric and microwave dielectric materials have been described. Given its scope, this book is of interest to researchers who work in crystalline materials. It also promotes the multidisciplinary collaboration among chemistry, materials science, and physics.

D. Stalke, U. Flierler: More than Just Distances from Electron Density Studies.- A.O. Madsen: Modeling and Analysis of Hydrogen Atoms.- B.B. Iversen/J. Overgaard: Charge Density Methods in Hydrogen Bond Studies.- U. Flierler, D. Stalke: Some Main Group Chemical Perceptions in the Light of Experimental Charge Density Investigations.- D. Leusser: Electronic Structure and Chemical Properties of Lithium Organics Seen Through the Glasses of Charge Density.- L. J. Farrugia, P. Macchi: Bond Orders in Metal–Metal Interactions Through Electron Density Analysis.- W. Scherer, V. Herz, Ch. Hauf: On the Nature of β-Agostic Interactions: A Comparison Between the Molecular Orbital and Charge Density Picture.

T. Koritsanszky, A. Volkov, M. Chodkiewicz: New Directions in Pseudoatom-Based X-Ray Charge Density Analysis.- B. Dittrich, D. Jayatilaka: Reliable Measurements of Dipole Moments from Single-Crystal Diffraction Data and Assessment of an In-Crystal Enhancement.- B. Engels, Th. C. Schmidt, C. Gatti, T. Schirmeister, R.F. Fink: Challenging Problems in Charge Density Determination: Polar Bonds and Influence of the Environment.- S. Fux, M. Reiher: Electron Density in Quantum Theory.- K. Meindl, J.Henn: Residual Density Analysis.- C. Gatti: The Source Function Descriptor as a Tool to Extract Chemical Information from Theoretical and Experimental Electron Densities.