Unidirectional crystallization of large diameter benzophenone single crystal from solution at ambient temperature

Oriented organic crystals along prerequisite direction are very important in terms of reducing loss of material and cost during nonlinear optical device fabrication. In this paper, “uniaxially solution-crystallization method” [K. Sankaranarayanan, J. Crystal Growth 284 (2005) 203] was elaborated and usefulness of this method has been demonstrated by growing 〈1 1 0〉 oriented, 60 mm diameter, benzophenone single crystal ingot out of xylene as solvent. Crystalline and NLO studies carried out on the grown sample justifies that the crystal quality is at least as good as the quality of the crystal grown by other known methods.