High pressure Raman spectra of l-glutamic acid hydrochloride crystal

Semiorganic nonlinear optical single crystal l-glutamic acid hydrochloride has been studied by Raman spectroscopy under high pressure conditions. Our results show that this amino acid crystal presents one structural phase transition at about 2.1 GPa and one molecular conformational change around 7.5 GPa. If we compare such behavior with that of the l-glutamic acid crystal in the same range of pressure we note a great stability for the hydrochloride samples. The chloride ion plays an important role increasing the number of the hydrogen bonds that hold the crystal together and thus, contributing to improve the structural stability of the crystal.