Investigation on nucleation kinetics, structural and dielectric properties of an organic NLO single crystal-l-Histidinium maleate (LHM)

An organic nonlinear optical (NLO) material, l-histidinium maleate, was synthesized, and subsequently a single crystal was grown from aqueous solution by slow evaporation technique. The solubility of the material was determined gravimetrically. The metastable zonewidth was studied to observe the stability of the material using the polythermal method. The induction period was experimentally determined, and various nucleation parameters such as interfacial energy, Gibbs free energy change, critical volume free energy change and radius of critical nuclei of LHM crystals were estimated based on classical theory of nucleation. The grown crystals were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction. The crystalline perfection of the grown crystal was assessed with the help of a high-resolution X-ray diffractometry. The stoichiometric form of LHM was confirmed by a CHN analysis. The dielectric measurement was carried out as a function of frequencies at different temperatures.