Systematic discussions on structural, optical, mechanical, electrical and its application to NLO devices of a novel semi-organic single crystal: Guanidinium tetrafluoroborate (GFB)

A new novel semi-organic crystal guanidinium tetrafluoroborate (GFB) was grown by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The cell parameters and its crystalline nature were determined from powder X-ray diffraction analysis. The strain of the material was found using Hall-Williamson plot. The high resolution X-ray diffraction study reveals the crystalline perfection of the grown crystal. The functional groups were confirmed through Fourier transform infrared spectral analysis. The UV-vis-NIR study shows that the crystal is transparent in the entire visible region and other optical constants were also calculated. The Vicker's hardness study shows that the crystal exhibits reverse indentation size effect. The dielectric property was analysed for different temperatures and frequencies. Piezoelectricity was confirmed by determining the piezoelectric charge coefficient. The second harmonic generation of the grown crystal was determined using Kurtz-powder technique and compared with that of KDP crystal. The thermal stability of the crystal was found using TG-DTA analyses.