Growth, linear and nonlinear optical and, laser damage threshold studies of organometallic crystal of MnHg(SCN)4

► The organometallic complexes of thiocyanate are desirable nonlinear optical materials for realizing blue-violet light by frequency doubling of laser radiation. ► An important aspect of utilizing organometallic structures for nonlinear optics is in their unique charge transfer capability associated with charge transfer transitions either from metal to ligand or ligand to metal. ► The organic ligand is usually more dominant in the NLO effect. Especially, the SCN organic ligand with medium sized π-electron systems such as benzene derivatives has its SHG efficiency higher than that of urea. ► Manganese mercury thiocyanate (MMTC) belongs to this category of materials and it has good nonlinear optical properties coupled with moderate mechanical and thermal stability. It belongs to the two metal-centered complex compounds, which has the intermediate structural features between small inorganic crystals and large complex macromolecular crystals. ► To the best of the author's knowledge, the third order nonlinear optical properties of SCN organic ligand based crystals are not yet reported. Though, the SHG effect and other laser related studies have been extensively carried out on the SCN ligand based crystal of MMTC; this is the first report that deals with the third order NLO properties of the sample. ► The aim of the present article is to carry out the growth of organometallic crystal of MMTC and investigate its linear and nonlinear optical properties. Along with the Z-scan study, the phase matching property of the crystal and the laser induced surface damage threshold studies are also carried out to expedite the use of the crystal for device fabrication. In addition, the optical properties of the grown crystal are investigated employing spectroscopic techniques such as; FT-IR, UV-Vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence.