Nucleation kinetics, micro-crystallization and surface morphology studies of the nonlinear optical single-crystal l-lysinium trifluoroacetate

The organic nonlinear optical crystal of amino-carboxyl acid family, l-lysinium trifluoroacetate (abbreviated as LLTF) was successfully grown from its aqueous solution by the temperature-lowering technique. Its growth morphology was investigated based on the X-ray single-crystal diffraction data and the growth habits were studied using the micro-crystallization method. The metastable zonewidth and induction period were determined for the aqueous solution growth of LLTF. The surface free energy values were calculated from the experimental data. Nucleation kinetics and fundamental growth parameters such as critical radius, critical free energy and volume free energy change were also evaluated. Crystals of LLTF were obtained by the optimized nucleation parameters.