Investigation on the micro-crystallization of l-arginine trifluoroacetate (LATF) crystals

A new organic salt nonlinear optical crystal, l-arginine trifluoroacetate (LATF), has been grown from aqueous solutions. Growth morphology was deduced by the Bravais-Friedel Donnay-Harker (BFDH) model and the influence of pH value on crystal growth using the micro-crystallization method was studied. The results show that the growth properties could be improved by adding appropriate amount of HCl. Etch patterns on the {1 0 1} facet of LATF crystals are also illustrated and described.