Growth and characterization of organometallic L-alanine cadmium chloride single crystal by slow evaporation technique

Single crystals of L-alanine cadmium chloride (LACC), an organometallic nonlinear optical material, have been grown by the slow evaporation technique. The grown crystals were subjected to various characterization techniques, such as single crystal and powder XRD, FTIR, UV-vis and TGA-DTA. The mechanical properties of the crystals show that this material belongs to the category of hard materials. Second harmonic generation was confirmed by the Kurtz and Perry powder technique. Electrical parameters, such as dielectric constant, dielectric loss, ac and dc conductivity and their corresponding activation energies have been studied. The low dielectric constant and dielectric loss suggest that this material is a good candidate for micro-electronic applications. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.