Structural and optical studies of single crystals of L-alanine L-alaninium picrate monohydrate under dynamic shock pulse-loaded conditions for photonic applications

Nowadays sonic shock pulse studies of NLO (non-linear optical) single crystals are stimulating researchers due to the fascinating optical transmittance without structural symmetry modification. The investigation of the impact of the sonic shock pulse of the title crystal has never been done before in the literature. The single crystals of Lalanine L-alaninium picrate monohydrate were grown by slow evaporation technique which was subjected to 0, 1, 2 and 3 shock pulses of Mach number 1.7. The X-ray diffraction investigations of the title crystal taken before and after the shock pulse impact reveal that the crystal symmetry (P21) is unaltered in all shocked conditions. It's interesting to note that, in contrast to the control crystal, the diffraction peak intensities at (012), (123), (028), and (0310) greatly enhanced at the third shocked condition attributed to the increase in crystallite. As reinforcement to XRD studies, the UV-visible analysis study also shows enhanced optical transmittance at the third shocked condition. The optical transmittance values of the control and shocked crystal are found to be 29, 27, 37 and 40% respectively at 800 nm for 0, 1, 2, and 3 shocks. The bandgap energy values for the control and third shocked crystals were computed using the Tauc plot relation, and the determined values are 5.05 and 5.3 eV, respectively. Current experimental findings showed that the shock pulse impact has significantly enhanced the crystalline nature, increasing the optical transmittance and making the title crystal extremely advantageous for photonic applications.