Nucleation kinetics, growth and characterization of sodium tetraborate decahydrate - second harmonic generation in centrosymmetric crystal

Sodium tetraborate decahydrate single crystals were grown from aqueous solution by slow cooling technique. Nucleation and growth kinetics give valuable information about the crystal growth process, which can be utilized in the growth of large size crystals. Attempt are made to study the nucleation parameters such as solubility, induction period, interfacial tension, Gibbs critical free energy, radius of critical nuclei. The crystal possess positive temperature coefficient of solubility. XRD analysis shows that the crystal crystallizes in monoclinic system with space group C2/c. Thermal stability of the crystal was analyzed by TGA/DTG. From optical studies band gap of the material was found to be 5.64 eV. The existence of SHG was confirmed by Q-switched Nd:YAG laser technique.