Growth and characterization of a nonlinear optical crystal: l-histidine trifluoroacetate

A novel organic nonlinear optical crystal, l-histidine trifluoroacetate (LHTF), has been prepared, and single crystals had been grown by the controlled evaporation of the aqueous solution. Its solubility curve was determined gravimetrically. The structural, physicochemical properties of the grown crystals were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis. Density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-31G (d, p) level had been used to compute the first-order hyperpolarizability of LHTF. The optical transmission spectrum and second-harmonic generation were investigated to study its linear and nonlinear optical properties.