A novel barium silicon phosphide was synthesized and characterized. Ba2Si3P6 crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric space group Pna2(1) (No. 33) and exhibits a unique bonding connectivity in the Si-P polyanion not found in other compounds. The crystal structure is composed of SiP4 tetrahedra connected into one-dimensional double-tetrahedra chains through corner sharing, edge sharing, and covalent P-P bonds. Chains are surrounded by Ba cations to achieve an electron balance. The novel compound exhibits semiconducting properties with a calculated bandgap of 1.6 eV and experimental optical bandgap of 1.88 eV. The complex pseudo one -dimensional structure manifests itself in the transport and optical properties of Ba2Si3P6, demonstrating ultralow thermal conductivity (0.56 W m(-1) K-1 at 300 K), promising second harmonic generation signal (0.9 X AgGaS2), as well as high laser damage threshold (1.6 X AgGaS2, 48.5 MW/cm(2)) when compared to the benchmark material AgGaS2. Differential scanning calorimetry reveals that Ba2Si3P6 melts congruently at 1373 K, suggesting that large single crystal growth may be possible.