Linear and nonlinear optical properties of semiorganic single crystal: L-Alanine cadmium chloride (LACC)

Single crystal of L-alanine cadmium chloride (LACC) has been grown by the conventional seed suspended technique. The grown crystals were subjected to various characterizations such as powder XRD, FTIR, UV-vis, second and third harmonic generation measurements. The structure of pure LACC crystal has been examined by powder X-ray diffraction analysis. The confirmation with single crystal XRD reveals that the crystal belongs to monoclinic system with space group C-2. The FTIR spectrum was recorded to identify the expected functional groups and the molecular structure was confirmed by H-1 NMR spectrum. Dielectric measurements reveal that the grown crystals have very low dielectric loss. UV-vis-spectrum shows the lower cut off wavelength at 245 nm and transparency above 95% in the UV-vis region. The optical band gap was determined to be 5.12 eV. Preliminary measurement of green light emission using Kurtz powder technique indicates that their second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency. The third order nonlinear optical parameters such as nonlinear refractive index (n(2)), nonlinear absorption coefficient (beta) and third order susceptibility (chi(3)) are found to be in the order of 2.4233 x 10(-14) cm(2)/W, 0.2252 x 10(-4) cm/W, 0.9134 x.10(-15) esu, respectively by Z scan measurement. The encouraging results show that the LACC crystals have great potential applications in optical devices. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.