Melt growth of novel organic nonlinear optical material and its characterization

Ethyl P-amino benzoate (EPAB) is also known as benzocaine was recently identified as new organic non linear optical (NLO) material which is having nearly six times higher SHG efficiency than that of KDP. Hence, growth of unidirectional EPAB crystal gains importance for phase matching studies and this is the first melt growth report of EPAB single crystal. Seeding with the microtube in the present technique eliminates the need for pre-grown seed and has more probability to grow bulk single crystal. Growth direction of the mu T-Cz grown EPAB single crystals was identified as < 100 > using X-ray powder diffraction studies. Thermal properties and optical transparency of the grown material were analyzed by TG and DTA and UV-VIS spectroscopic studies respectively. Laser damage threshold study shows nearly five times high damage threshold than KDP. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.