Single crystal growth and properties of semiorganic nonlinear optical L-arginine hydrochloride monohydrate crystals

L-arginine hydrochloride monohydrate (LAHCl center dot H2O) has been synthesized and single crystals have been grown from its aqueous solution by slow evaporation and slow cooling methods. The solubility of the material was measured at various temperatures and bulk crystals of size 26x13x11 mm(3) have been grown by optimizing the growth parameters. The grown crystals have been subjected to single crystal XRD studies to confirm the structure and to estimate the lattice parameters. FTIR analysis indicate the mode of vibrations of different molecular groups present in LAHCl and confirm the protonation of guanidyl, amino groups and deprotonation of COO- groups. UV-Vis transmission spectrum revealed the linear optical properties of the grown crystals with a transparency of 65% over the entire visible range upto 300 nm. Thermal behavior of the grown crystal was investigated from DTA and TGA measurements. Dielectric studies have been carried out on the grown crystals. Kurtz and Perry powder SHG technique confirms the NLO property of the grown crystal. The SHG efficiency of LAHCl was found to be 0.38 with respect to KDP. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.