Growth and characterization of l-alanine cadmium bromide a semiorganic nonlinear optical crystals

Abstract

A new semiorganic nonlinear optical crystal, l-alanine cadmium bromide (LACB) was grown from aqueous solution by slow solvent evaporation method at room temperature. As grown crystals were characterized for its spectral, thermal, linear and second order nonlinear optical properties. LACB crystallizes in orthorhombic system and unit cell parameters a = 5.771(2) Å, b = 6.014(4) Å, c = 12.298(2) Å, α = β = γ = 90° and volume = 426.8(3) Å3. The mode of vibrations of different molecular groups present in the crystal was identified by FTIR study. The grown crystals were found to be transparent in the entire visible region. The thermal strength and the decomposition of the grown crystals were studied using TG/DTA and DSC analysis. Dielectric measurement revealed that the crystals had very low dielectric constant at higher frequency in room temperature. The mechanical behavior was studied by Vicker's microhardness tester. The grown crystal has negative photoconductivity nature. The fluorescence spectrum of the crystal was recorded and its optical band gap is about 3.356 eV. The NLO property of crystal using modified Kurtz-Perry powder technique with Nd:YAG laser light of wavelength 1064 nm indicated that their second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency was half that of pure KDP. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.