Studies on growth, spectral, optical and mechanical properties of new organic NLO crystal: Guanidinium l-glutamate (GuGL)

Good optical quality single crystal of guanidinium l-glutamate is grown by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The cell parameters and crystallinity are determined from the single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction analysis. The formation of synthesized compound was confirmed by FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopic analysis. Wide band gap of 4.98 eV with high transmittance up to 2000 nm is observed for the grown crystal in UV–Vis–NIR spectral analysis. The optical constants such as refractive index and extinction coefficient of the grown crystal are obtained as 2.1 and 8.64 × 10−6 respectively. The nonlinear optical study reveals that the second harmonic generation efficiency of guanidinium l-glutamate is 2.8 times that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP). The mechanical stability of the grown crystal was analyzed by Vickers microhardness test and the results are discussed.

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► The GuGL crystal has good crystallinity nature.
► Functional groups were identified by FT-IR and FT Raman spectral analysis.
► GuGL crystal has wide optical band gap of 4.98 eV.
► SHG efficiency of the grown crystal is 2.8 times greater than that of KDP.
► The crystal exhibits microhardness anisotropy.